The 22-time Grand Slam tournament winner was completely lost in his arduous victory over Italian Fabio Fognini for a set and a half. But then the 36-year-old fought his way out of the deep and dominated the action.
When everything seemed to have been decided, Nadal injured himself: with a backhand hit, the racket hit his nose violently from the ground. The bleeding wound had to be treated during a medical break. From then on, Nadal played with a nasal plaster – and suddenly got out of rhythm again. However, the second in the world rankings quickly recovered and advanced to the third round with a 2:6,6:4,6:2,6:1 victory. There he meets Richard Gasquet from France.
“It’s happened to me before with the golf club, but not with the tennis racket,” Nadal said afterwards, smiling about his faux pas. He feels “a little dizzy”, it hurts “a little”.
The title favorite was not at all satisfied with “one of the worst starts to a match I’ve ever had”. He was “completely frustrated” and somehow tried to “stay positive”.
Source: Nachrichten
