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Nadal continues to play in form
Rafael Nadal fights for his next victory in front of his home crowd in Madrid and is well on his way to the French Open in Paris.
Tennis superstar Rafael Nadal is still on the road to success at the ATP Masters in Madrid, which should lead him to the French Open in Paris. The 22-time Grand Slam winner from Spain moved into the round of 16 on Monday afternoon with an arduous 6:1, 6:7 (5:7), 6:3 win against Argentina’s Pedro Cachin.
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“I enjoy playing here in front of this backdrop. My dream continues. I started well, then his game became more unpredictable, that made it more difficult,” said Nadal in the on-court interview.
The clay court king initially dominated the duel on his favorite surface at will and consistently used his break opportunities. After 47 minutes the first set was completed. In a weak second round, the favorite suddenly lacked energy, became passive and fell behind 1:4 due to two breaks. A tough game developed, after 1:27 hours Cachin converted his second set point.
Nadal still has big doubts before Madrid
In the decisive set, Nadal woke up again and, despite some effort, brought the match home after 3:04 hours. His opponent in the quarterfinals is the Czech Jiri Lehecka, who made headlines at the beginning of March at the ATP Masters in Indian Wells with a win against the Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas.
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At the start in Madrid, Nadal, who is basing his participation in the French Open (May 20th to June 9th) on “feeling competitive”, beat the 16-year-old American Darwin Blanch 6:1, 6: 0 left no chance. This was followed by a successful revenge against De Minaur, ranked eleventh in the world rankings, his first win against a top 20 player since November 2022.
The Spaniard was still very skeptical about his form before his first match in the Spanish capital. “If I arrive in Paris the way I feel today, I won’t play,” the left-hander explained. On the pitch, however, he proved himself wrong. In all three matches he presented himself as confident as usual and, apart from the second set against Cachin, made few mistakes of his own.
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For Nadal, Madrid is the second tournament after his comeback. The 37-year-old had failed in the second round of the competition in Barcelona against Australian Alex De Minaur two weeks earlier. The “Bull of Manacor” had to end his season early at the beginning of last year due to hip problems.
2024 could be Nadal’s farewell year on the ATP tour. Before the tournament in Madrid he announced that he would be playing in the “Caja Magica” for the last time. At the French Open, Nadal is the lone record holder with 14 tournament wins. The Roland Garros facility also hosts the tennis competitions of the Summer Olympics in Paris.