Rafael Nadal fell for a painful hold – Newspaper Kommersant No. 9 (7454) of 01/19/2023

The central event of the third day of the Australian Open was the defeat in the 1/32 finals of the “seeded” under the first number of last year’s winner of this tournament, Rafael Nadal, from the American Mackenzie McDonald. The main reason for the loss of the famous Spaniard in three games was the damage to the left thigh, which Nadal received a few days ago and aggravated during the meeting. Meanwhile, two Russian participants from the top half of the bracket, two-time Australian Open finalist Daniil Medvedev and Karen Khachanov advanced to the third round.

In the unique career of Rafael Nadal, there were so many all sorts of sores and injuries that his ability to overcome pain has long been no surprise. The last such example was last year’s Roland Garros, won famous Spaniard, despite progressive necrosis in the bones of the left foot. Before the current Australian Open, there seemed to be no information about any ailments of Nadal, although by indirect signs, in particular, two defeats in the United Cup team tournament, it could be concluded that he was not in the best shape. In addition, having started training in Melbourne, the reigning champion complained about the quality of the balls used in the tournament this year. According to Nadal, it is impossible to give them the spin he needs.

On Wednesday, however, it emerged that for several days the 22-time Grand Slam champion had to deal with yet another problem. He was let down by his left hip, which, it turns out, has its own special history of the disease. Moreover, during the meeting with the American Mackenzie McDonald, the situation completely got out of control.

“At the moment, I don’t know if the reason is in the muscle or in the joint. But now I feel like I can hardly move,” Nadal admitted after his second and last match in this tournament.

At the beginning of the eighth game of the second game, he, trying to reflect the ball with a forehand, made a grimace on his face and limped, and soon took a medical time-out, which, however, did not prevent his opponent from leading 2-0 in batches. The third set turned out to be the longest, but in the 11th game McDonald succeeded in the decisive break. A couple of minutes later, the 27-year-old Californian, who is only 65th in the world ranking, celebrated his first victory over an opponent from the top five in Grand Slam tournaments. Thus, the opponent, who last time, at the French Open in 2020, pulled out only four games.

Having suffered a complete failure in Melbourne, Nadal will not only drop now in the world classification from second to sixth, and maybe even lower. He has already given another reason to talk about the possible end of his career. True, there is no specifics on this matter. So far, it is only clear that such an early failure in Australia was an unpleasant surprise for Nadal, otherwise he simply would not have gone there with his wife and three-month-old son.

In theory, the next tournament with the participation of the young father should be the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships in February, with which Nadal unexpectedly signed a contract for the first time since 2008. But now, apparently, his arrival in the UAE is under a big question.

As for the dirt season, it is still too far away. But even if the Spanish veteran manages to recover relatively quickly, he will hardly be able to claim the first place in the ranking until the fall, which he almost conquered in the second half of last year.

Nadal’s fiasco was the main, but not the only surprise of the third tournament day. Among his losers, unexpectedly for many, was the first racket of Russia and the eighth number of the women’s rating Daria Kasatkina, who lost in just 54 minutes to her compatriot Varvara Gracheva. This match of the first round due to bad weather was postponed to Wednesday from Tuesday – as was the meeting between Russian Roman Safiullin and Denis Kudla, which ended in victory for the American.

But the two strongest Russian tennis players in the upper half of the grid, testing the strength of Australian tennis players, reached the third round on schedule. Daniil Medvedev, who faced some difficulties during the first hour of the game, broke the resistance of experienced John Millman in three sets, and Karen Khachanov gave one game to Jason Kubler. In theory, one could already dream of a Russian quarter-final, but Medvedev now has to play with the American Sebastian Korda, who a week and a half ago in the final of the tournament in Adelaide almost ran over Novak Djokovic. Khachanov faces an even more serious task. His next opponent will be American Francis Tiafoe, a semi-finalist of last year’s US Open, who has not lost a single match out of seven this year.

Evgeny Fedyakov