Rafael Nadal won his most prestigious victory since his return from injury, Saturday in the 2nd round of the Masters 1000 tennis tournament in Madrid. The one who currently occupies the 512th rank in the world brought down the Australian Alex De Minaur, N.11 at the ATP and seeded N.10 on Spanish clay in two sets 7-6 (8/6), 6 -3. The match ended in two sets after a little over two hours of play.
Under the closed roof of the Manolo Santana stadium, Nadal (37) quickly made the break. However, he was immediately countered, not without strongly criticizing a decision by the referee not to grant him a challenge. De Minaur took the opportunity later to take a break in advance, but he was also blocked directly. In the tie-break, Rafael Nadal needed five set points before winning the first set.
The Bull of Manacor conquered the first two games of the second set, while Alex De Minaur started making more mistakes. By successfully defending his serve until concluding with the Australian’s entry, Nadal managed to take his revenge ten days after Alex De Minaur had knocked him out in the second round of the ATP 500 in Barcelona.
This is only the second time since the 2022 US Open that Rafael Nadal has won back-to-back competitive matches.
In the next round, the round of 16, Nadal will play against the Argentinian Pedro Cachin (ATP 91). The latter won a solid victory against the 21st in the world, the American Frances Tiafoe. The game ended with a score of 7-6 (7/1), 3-6, 6-4. Cachin remained on a series of fifteen consecutive defeats before the start of the Madrid tournament.
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