Rafa Nadal is out of the Masters 1000 in Madrid: Sascha Zverev has beaten him, 6-4 6-4, and it is the third win in a row that the inconstant German talent gets against the world number 2. Moreover, it is also the third time that Nadal will arrive in Rome without having won either in Monte Carlo or in Madrid (the others in 2015 and 2019) and above all the first time since 2003 that none of the Big Three – Nadal himself, Federer and Djokovic – wins none of the top three Masters 1000 of the season.
It is not a very surprise given that in Madrid we play at altitude, on very fast courts and with ‘flying’ balls that do not adapt too much to Nadal’s tennis – who, not surprisingly, has won there ‘only’ four times… -. And considering that the real goal of the almost 35-year-old Cannibal this year remains the Slam tournaments, first of all Roland Garros, where he looks for the 14th center that would take him ahead of one over Federer in the count of the ‘majors’. In Madrid, moreover, neither Federer, who will return after Rome in the ‘minor’ tournament in Geneva, nor Djokovic who decided to take a supplement of rest before Rome were in the race.
“It is certainly one of the most important victories of my career,” says Zverev. “Beating him at his home in Spain is incredible, but my tournament isn’t over yet.” In Madrid Zverev has already won in 2018, when he did not lose a single set in the Caja Magica, as he has done so far this year. In the semifinals Zverev will find Dominic Thiem, who eliminated the American John Isner, in a remake of the final of the US Open 2020 in which it was Thiem who won in a hard-fought match. “I had the game under control, and at first I was playing better than him,” said Nadal. «At 4-2 I served for 5-2, but I made a disaster. Then I lost another bad game, 30-0 up. Things that happen, when you play against the strongest, and on very fast fields. A good guy, Sascha deserved to win ».
Small statistical note, the fall of Isner means that from Monday the United States will not even have a tennis player among the top 30 in the world. Since the computerized world rankings have existed, born in 1973, this has never happened.