The Spaniard, with no trace of the injury he suffered a few days ago, defeats Richard Gasquet in three sets and reaches the third round. His next rival will be local Frances Tiafoe.
Rafael Nadal’s nose looked good without stitches or even tape, 48 hours after the bleeding that caused an accidental blow he gave himself with the racket. As for the Spaniard’s tennis, it was also in excellent condition, as is often the case against Richard Gasquet.
Nadal improved to 18-0 against Gasquet in his career and took his winning streak to 34 against the Frenchman. He won Saturday night 6-0, 6-1, 7-5 to qualify for the third round.
After the second seed won the first nine games, Gasquet finally won one, 70 minutes into the game. A serve of 97 km/h was answered by a shot that crashed into the net by the monarch of the 22 Grand Slam tournaments. Gasquet raised both arms as the Arthur Ashe Stadium crowd rose to applause.
But everything went back to normal immediately after in this duel between 36-year-old tennis players. Nadal showed power with low shots and placed the balls with such precision that there was no escape for Gasquet, who once reached the top 10 in the world but is currently ranked 91st.
In the third set alone, Gasquet staged the most competitive match, drawing 5-5, before Nadal took the final two games to improve to 22-0 in the 2022 Grand Slam duels. The next season for the Mallorcan is dueling Frances Tiafoe, an American who reached the fourth round at Flushing Meadows for the third consecutive year. Nadal is 2-0 against Tiafoe.
In Saturday’s other matches, two-time Australian Open champion Viktoria Azarenka crushed Petra Martic 6-3, 6-0; Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz (3rd) beat local Jenson Brooksby 6-3, 6-3, 6-3; Cameron Norrie (7th) beat Holger Rune (28th) 7-5, 6-4, 6-1, and Andrey Rublev (9th) beat Denis Shapovalov (19th) 6-4, 2-6, 7-6 (3 ), 6-4 and 7-6 (10-7). Norrie and Rublev will meet in the next phase.
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Source: Latercera
I’m Todderic Kirkman, a journalist and author for athletistic. I specialize in covering all news related to sports, ranging from basketball to football and everything in between. With over 10 years of experience in the industry, I have become an invaluable asset to my team. My ambition is to bring the most up-to-date information on sports topics around the world.
