US Open 2010: Top seed Nadal wins opening match
The top ranked tennis player from the men’s side, Rafael Nadal, won his opening match of the United States Open tennis tournament. He defeated Teymuraz Gabashvili from Russia in a three setter clash on Tuesday. The final match score was 7-6 (7-4) 7-6 (7-4) 6-3.
Gabashvili did well to challenge the Spaniard on the second day of the United States Open tennis tournament in New York. As a result of this victory, the twenty-four year old Rafael will next meet Denis Istomin from Uzbekistan in the second round of the competition.
In other action on Tuesday, the fourth seeded Serbian tennis player, Novak Djokovic and David Nalbandian, won their respective matches, whereas, Ernests Gulbis, and, Marcos Baghdatis, lost.
Rafa was made to work really hard by the Russian and was unable to break the ninety-eight ranked Gabashvili until the seventh game during the third set of the match on Tuesday.
However, the reigning French Open and Wimbledon Champion, Rafael Nadal didn’t look one hundred percent comfortable on the hard court. He did manage to eventually win his opening round battle in a time period of around three hours on Tuesday.
Djokovic, defeated his compatriot, Viktor Troicki, in a total of five sets. The final match score was 6-3 3-6 2-6 7-5 6-3. As a result of this victory, the third seeded Serbian will next play Philipp Petzschner.
The twenty-three year old Djokovic while commenting on the conditions at Flushing Meadows after the match said, "I have played in such conditions earlier as well. Such long matches always make you feel exhausted in the end. It is absolutely not easy at all. One has to stay really strong to eventually succeed in such situations”.
Despite starting well, Djokovic after grabbing the first set looked highly uncomfortable on the court.
Troicki, took full advantage of the situation and went on to take the next two sets before breaking in the fourth, for a lead of 2-0. However, after the third set, Djokovic once again looked strong and went on to win the match in the end in a time period of three hours and forty minutes.
“Full credit to Viktor. He performed really well in today’s battle and his serve was also incredible. A couple of points in the end changed the match result and I was lucky enough in the end to win it today”, said Djokovic after the match.
The former eighth ranked, Baghdatis, was stunned by his French foe, Arnaud Clement, who claimed a 6-3 2-6 1-6 6-4 7-5 victory at the Louis Armstrong Stadium in New York.
"I have no words to describe my today’s performance on the court. But of course there is no doubt about the fact that I didn’t play up to the mark. I didn’t play well. My game was not that aggressive as well. Arnaud on the other hand played a very good first set and thus deserved the victory”, admitted Marcos, who was a finalist at the hard court Australian Open tennis tournament back in 2006.
The twenty-fourth seeded Gulbis, was dismissed in straight sets by Jeremy Chardy, where as the twenty-eighth seeded, Radek Stepanek, lost to Julien Benneteau in a total of four sets on Tuesday. The final match score was 6-4 6-2 4-6 6-4. Juan Monaco, seeded 30 at Flushing Meadows, was also thrashed by his Canadian opponent, Peter Polansky, in straight sets.
Tags: