In the first round of the men’s singles competition, the 37-year-old veteran did not spare 16-year-old Darwin Blanch (ATP-1028) participating in the “roll call” tournament – he won 6-1, 6-0 in just 64 minutes.
A new Masters record was also set Thursday afternoon on Center Court at Caja Magica, which was the largest age difference (21 years and 117 days) between opponents in a Masters meeting.
It was already the 57th victory for the king of clay in the Spanish capital, who dominated from the first minutes of the meeting, and according to this indicator, no tennis player can match him in the entire history of the tournament.
In general, Rafa, who is playing in Madrid for the 20th time, has won this tournament 5 times in his career – in 2005, 2010, 2013, 2014 and 2017.
We will remind you that this year is only the third official ATP tournament for R. Nadal. Due to hip and back problems, he managed to play 6 matches, during which he won 4.
The well-known Alex De Minaur (ATP-11) will be waiting for the host of the cards in the second round of the championships on Saturday. The Australian tennis player confidently defeated Rafa a week ago in Barcelona – 7:5, 6:1.
Interestingly, an even bigger upset was recorded on Center Court in Madrid on Thursday as WTA tour star Coco Gauff (WTA-3) defeated Arantxa Rus (WTA-47) of the Netherlands 6-0, 6-0.
