Nadal to face Hewitt in Roland Garros third round
Rafael Nadal will play Lleyton Hewitt in the third round of the French Open in a battle of two former world No. 1’s at very different stages of their careers.
World No. 2 ranked Nadal returned to Roland Garros in 2010 without his name being prefaced by the words “defending champion” for the first time since he debuted in the clay court Grand Slam in 2005.
The Spaniard was only knocked off the No. 1 spot in the rankings in July last year, after Roger Federer won the French Open and Wimbledon titles to reclaim the mantle of being the top ranked player in the men’s game.
Hewitt, by contrast, was last at the top of the rankings in June 2003. While Nadal most recently won a Grand Slam title at the Australian Open in 2009, the sixth of his career, Hewitt won the most recent of his two major titles at Wimbledon in 2002. The world No. 33 was last in the final of a Grand Slam at the Australian Open in 2005, before Nadal had appeared in his first.
Indeed, Nadal’s rise to the top of the game has taken place largely in the period where Hewitt’s career has been gently sliding in the opposite direction.
Perhaps the one common ground the pair have shared over the past couple of years is their respective injury woes, with Nadal struggling to manage his knee tendonitis – a problem the four-time French Open champion now seems to have learned to handle – and Hewitt sidelined for varying periods, most recently for a couple of months this year, after hip surgery.
The career head-to-head record between the pair currently sits at 5-4 in Nadal’s favour, but the truth is revealed upon a closer inspection of their results. Hewitt hasn’t defeated Nadal since Queen’s in 2006 (when the Spaniard retired from the match), with the 24-year-old winning their last four matches.
Still more tellingly, Nadal has defeated the Australian three times previously at Roland Garros, most recently in the same stage of the draw last year, the score a straightforward 6-1, 6-3, 6-1 in his favour.
Their respective second round matches this year tell us all we need to know about each player’s form ahead of this third round clash.
Nadal overpowered Horacio Zeballos 6-2, 6-2, 6-3, providing yet another demonstration of why he is the best clay court player in the current game, and why he will leave a legacy that will surely see him ranked among the greatest dirt court players in tennis when he eventually waves his final goodbyes.
Hewitt’s second round win against Denis Istomin was a five set match fought out in his typically tenacious style, a brand of tennis which is yet to prove successful against Nadal at Roland Garros.
Chances are, the 28th seed won’t manage to produce a different result at the French Open this year, although you can be sure it won’t be for want of trying.
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