Rafael Nadal eases into the second round of the Australian Open
World Number One Rafael Nadal had a brilliant start to his Australian Open campaign in Melbourne, after he stormed past Brazilian Marcos Daniel in a one-sided affair.
The Spaniard didn’t lose a single game in the match until Marcos retired from the match due to a knee injury. The match, which ended 6-0 and 5-0, lasted just 47 minutes.
Nadal got six break-points in the match and didn’t miss any opportunity, as he broke his opponent's service all six times. He hit 25 winners in the match and didn’t lose his focus at any point.
There was only one nervy moment in the match for Nadal, when he gave away four break-points to his opponent. He made a flurry of unforced errors in that service game but was able to hold serve eventually.
As the match was affected by the injury to Marcos, Nadal didn’t comment much on his performance in the match. He said, “Is difficult to say something, to say I played really well, I played bad, I think I played right. I played some good shots, some long
shots.”
The world number one said that he can improve in one area; and that is his serve. He stated, “The serve can be a little bit better. That's the only point that I think I can improve. I can improve in everything for sure. But the only thing I feel I have to
improve more if I want to play well here. So that's it. For the rest, forehand and backhand, I felt okay.”
This was the second time in his career that Nadal didn’t lose any game in a match. He achieved the feat last time, when he defeated Juan Antonio Marin at the Barcelona Open in 2003. However, Marin was injured after the first set in that match and couldn’t
continue playing.
Nadal is undefeated in 22 straight matches in Grand Slam tournaments and is chasing his fourth consecutive major title, to become only the second player in the history of tennis to do so. The only player to have won four consecutive majors to date was Rod
Laver back in 1969.
Today was a good day for all the Spanish players as apart from Nadal, three other Spaniards won their matches to advance to the second round of the tournament. David Ferer, Feliciano Lopez and Guillermo Garcia-Lopez earned victories in their opening round
matches.
Tags: