Western Daily Press (Saturday)
Nadal gets his nose in front after slow start
RAFAEL Nadal recovered from a shaky start and a bloody nose inflicted by his own racket to defeat Fabio Fognini and reach the US Open third round.
The second seed, who has not lost before the last 32 in New York since 2004, trailed by a set and 4-2 and was struggling to put the ball in the court.
But, with help from a similarly wayward opponent, Nadal turned things around and finished strongly in a 2-6, 6-4, 6-2, 6-1 victory to set up a clash with fellow veteran player Richard Gasquet.
Having sought treatment for blisters in the second set, there was then a bizarre moment in the fourth when Nadal’s racket bounced off the court and into his nose, drawing blood and prompting the 36-yearold to lie down on the court and seek medical attention.
The Spaniard said afterwards: “At the beginning I thought I broke the nose because it was a shock. It was very painful.
“(There’s a) little bit of pain, but (I’m feeling) good. Happy after a terrible start. I don’t understand yet how I started that bad because the feeling before the match was good.
“But these kind of things sometimes happen so you need to accept and keep going. That’s what I did. I was lucky that Fabio made some mistakes and I was able to start putting some balls in and finished the match playing obviously better, much better. I am practising much, much better than what I am playing. That’s a positive thing. Then I need to make that happen in the matches.”
The Spaniard had played only one match since suffering an abdominal tear at Wimbledon prior to arriving at Flushing Meadows and was wary of fully committing to his serve.
It was not just the serve that was having an off day initially on Arthur Ashe Stadium, with Nadal spraying groundstrokes and missing routine balls. Across the first two sets he made 27 unforced errors and dropped serve five times, including four in a row.
Nadal’s young countryman Carlos Alcaraz had a more comfortable time of it earlier in the day, defeating Federico Coria 6-2, 6-1, 7-5.
The third seed was delighted with his level and concentration, saying: “I’m happy with my performance. I think I played really, really well. I had to be really, really focused. Grand slam, every minute on court counts. You have to be really focused and show your best level. I think I did it today.”
Meanwhile, there will be no farewell grand slam title in doubles for 40-year-old Serena Williams after she and sister Venus, 42, lost in the first round of the US Open women’s event.
The sisters decided to give it one last whirl four years after their last slam appearance together and six years on from the most recent of their 14 titles.
But the old magic was not quite there and they fell to a 7-6 (7-5), 6-4 loss to the Czech duo of 37-year-old Lucie Hradecka and 17-year-old Linda Noskova.