Rafael Nadal shows no signs of Paris hangover at Wimbledon
Marcos Daniel was knocked out by this year’s French Open champion, Rafael Nadal in the second round on Wednesday. The world number 1 tennis ace showed no signs of fatigue at the Queen's Club in spite of the fact that the French Open and Wimbledon occurring very close to each other. With a fifth Roland Garros title, the Spaniard once again showed his mastery on clay but his celebrations must have been rightly muted assessing by his brutal knock down of Daniel in the warm-up event for the Wimbledon Championships.
Rafael Nadal’s victory over Robin Soderling in the French Open final has earned him the world number 1 ranking in the ATP International Circuit. The 24-year-old Spaniard is once again back on track under the grey skies of western London. Nadal has won the Queen's and Wimbledon titles in 2008. However, his knee injuries did not allow him to defend his titles last year. So technically, this match was his first competitive one after the memorable final at the All England Club where he crushed Roger Federer on grass about two years ago.
Nadal has been rejuvenated over the past few weeks with his fitness issues behind him. After winning the crowns in Rome, Monte Carlo, Madrid and most recently, the French Open title, Nadal has passed through the clay court season in a haughty fashion.
Daniel, who is ranked 112th in the world of tennis was making his debut at Queen’s and the Brazilian was simply helpless against Nadal who further stretched the winning momentum to 23 games in a row. Nadal, within no time brought himself into action on grass as he allowed two brutal winners from behind the court to burst in Marcos’s first service play. After sailing smoothly through the first set of the match, the Spaniard was in absolute dominance.
The rain during the start of the second set effected Nadal’s play for the time being however he managed to swiftly overcome the knock out drop after the commencement of the game. The Spaniard took a lead of 4-2 by breaking the Brazilian in the first set. As a result, the determination of Daniel was completely torn to shreds. With this victory, Nadal will face 16th seeded Denis Istomin in the next meeting. The Uzbek, during the second round of the match knocked out Jamaica's Dustin Brown 7-6 (9/7), 6-4 and earned his place in a match against Nadal.
Nadal seemed to be satisfied by successfully keeping his winning momentum going after resting for two weeks in Paris. According to the Spaniard, his vacations after the French Open along with his back-to-back media commitments were the reasons why he was not able to practice for a longer period of time. However, in spite of all the hassle, the world number 1 tennis star Rafael Nadal did well during this match and that is the most important thing at the end of the day.
The sweet memories of French Open title still seems to be revolving around his head as it was a touchy moment for the Spaniard. However, Nadal looks to be contented while playing on grass as well. The most exciting thing to watch in the days to come will be seeing Nadal playing on grass after recently winning on clay. This transition is expected to be the biggest challenge for the Spaniard beyond any doubt.
In another warm up match, second seed Novak Djokovic defeated the Italian Paolo Lorenzi 6-3, 6-3 and made his way into the third round quite comfortably.
The Serbian, who is ranked as the number three in the world has been having problems this season due to his bad health. However, he made a concrete start after knocking down early in both the sets.
As far as Rafael Nadal is concerned, if he continues his winning streak, experts say that no one in the world can stop him from snatching another title at Wimbledon this season.
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