Madrid Tennis Match: Three-hour battle saves four match points, Nadal struggles in three sets to advance to the quarter-finals
2022-05-06 15:01:35Source: Xinhuanet
Xinhua News Agency, Madrid, May 5 (Xie Yuzhi) The 2022 Madrid Open will start the third round of men’s singles on the 5th. Spain’s “King of Heaven” Nadal fought hard in three sets and narrowly defeated Belgium’s Goffin 2:1 to enter the quarterfinals.
Facing the world No. 60 Goffin, the third seed Nadal’s road to promotion is not as easy as imagined. After successfully winning the first set, the Spaniard encountered stubborn resistance from the opponent in the last two sets, saved match points four times, and finally relied on the tie-break in the final set to get a ticket to the quarterfinals. The whole match took 3 hours and 13 minutes, and the scores of the three sets were 6:3, 5:7 and 7:6 (9).
In the first set, Goffin broke first in the fifth game, but Nadal broke back in the sixth and eighth games and won easily. In the second set, Nadal took the lead all the way to 5:3 following breaking serve early, and forced out the match point in the opponent’s serve that had to be guaranteed. But Goffin steadied his position and succeeded in securing the hair. Then, in his own serve to win the game, Nadal missed the match point once more and was broken by the opponent. In the twelfth game, Nadal sent two counts in the serving game, and Goffin took advantage of the situation to break serve to tie the total score to 1:1.
In the deciding set, both men stuck to their serve, dragging the game into a tiebreaker. In the tie-break, Nadal once led 4:1, but Goffin scored 5 points in a row to get the match point. In the cheers of the audience, Nadal withstood the pressure to save 4 match points, and he also lost an opportunity to end the game. At 10:9, Nadal finally fulfilled his fourth match point in this game and made a thrilling cut.
After the game, Nadal admitted that although he came back, his physical condition was not ideal: “My feet have been hurting, and this has become my daily routine. There is no way to eradicate such chronic injuries.”
In the quarter-finals, Nadal will encounter the Spanish teenager Alcaraz, known as “Nadal’s successor”. The score of 6:3 eliminated Englishman Norrie to advance. Talking regarding the match with Alcaraz, Nadal said: “He has been in the limelight recently and his form is better than me. I know very well what the reality is, but I will still try to win.”
In addition, due to the withdrawal of British player Murray, the top seed Djokovic was able to enter the quarter-finals without blood on the day; the second seed Zverev also easily advanced because his opponent Musetti was injured in the middle of the game; Seed Tsitsipas defeated Bulgarian Dimitrov 6:3, 6:4 in straight sets.
In the women’s singles semi-final that day, No. 8 seed Jabeur defeated qualifier Alexandrova 6:2, 6:3, American player Pegula won 6:3, 6:4 Defeat Swiss Teichmann.
