In the second round of the Madrid Masters tennis championships, the 37-year-old veteran recalled his best times and after a hard-fought battle eliminated world number 11 Alex De Minaur (ATP-11) from Australia 7:6(6), 6:3.
R. Nadal, who has suffered from constant injuries in recent seasons, does not hide that this year is probably his last, but on his favorite surface, the tennis player showed that he is still very dangerous even for the elite of the ATP tour.
Creating a real sauna for his opponent on the center court of Caja Magica, the king of clay earned his first victory against a representative of the Top 20 since November 2022.
Just a week ago, Rafa lost to the Australian 5-7, 1-6 at the tournament in Barcelona, but this time he looked much more solid both in serving and exchanging shots from the back line.
A. De Minaur sought to become the first tennis player since Novak Djokovic (2011), who would have beaten the Spanish tennis legend for two weeks in a row. The Australian is having a very solid season and is even sixth in terms of ATP ranking points won this year.
It was Nadal’s 408th career victory in Masters series tournaments, and according to this indicator, he remains unbeaten. N. Djokovic, who is in the second position, has 403 wins in his savings account.
King Felipe VI of Spain, as well as world football stars Zinedine Zidane, Vinicius Junior, came to watch the performance of the former world number one racket in Madrid on Saturday evening.
In the third round of the tournament, R. Nadal will face Argentina’s Pedro Cachin (ATP-91), who surprisingly defeated Frances Tiafoe (ATP-21) 7:6(1), 3:6, 6:4. The Argentinian, who has already won two victories in Madrid, had lost 15 matches in a row before the tournament.
In case of victory, Rafa will have a really good chance to reach the quarter-finals as well, as the tennis player’s next opponent in the round of 16 would be Jiri Lehečka (ATP-31) or Thiago Monteiro (ATP-118).
