The Spanish Rafa Nadal returned to compete in the United States Open three years after his last participation, when he was crowned champion by winning the final against the Russian Daniil Medvedev, and he picked it up this Tuesday where he had left off, with a victory against the Australian Rinky Hijikata.
At the beginning of his path to the fifth New York crown, Nadal came back from a set down before settling his match 4-6, 6-2, 6-3, 6-3.
The Majorcan has twenty victories out of twenty this year in the ‘greats’, with titles at the Australian Open and at Roland Garros and an elimination at Wimbledon without taking the court, due to an abdominal injury that prevented him from playing the semifinal against Australian Nick Kyrgios.
Since then, Nadal had only played one game on the ‘Tour’, falling in his debut in Cincinnati against Croatian Borna Coric, ultimately champion.
The abdominal injury still prevents him from serving with total composure, as the scar he has does not give him much flexibility, but Rafa showed good form and his tireless competitive spirit.
Now a second round match awaits him against the Italian Fabio Fognini, who came back two sets behind against the Russian Aslan Karatsev (1-6, 5-7, 6-1 6-4 and 6-4).
Nadal needed three hours and eight minutes on the Arthur Ashe court, in a match that began outdoors and ended with the roof closed due to the danger of rain, to shield his round pass.
And that Hijikata, in his absolute debut in a ‘big’, seemed not to pay the pressure of measuring himself against the man who has won the most ‘Grand Slam’ titles in history, with 22 wins.
His first set was of a high level, he played with depth and fed on great points to achieve a break in the seventh game and defend it until 6-4 that gave him an advantage.
The young Australian, who recently won his first match on the ‘Tour’ in Los Cabos, accompanied each point with colorful celebrations, in particular when he connected the shot that was worth the break.
However, Nadal, who has the first position in the world ranking within his reach in this tournament, never lost his calm and took command of the operations with authority, accelerating with his forehands.
He quickly ran away 3-0 in the second set and in less than 35 minutes leveled the match by winning the second set 6-2.
Nadal increased the level and disarmed Hijikata, who began to suffer tremendously to win points. It was a matter of time before the Spaniard managed another break to fifteen in the third set to take a 4-1 lead.
Nadal’s forehand was doing more and more damage to Hijikata and that opened the way for him to break in the fifth game of the third set, coming after a delicate 30-30 in the previous game. A parallel right gave him the break to nil and definitely put the match downhill.
Nadal sentenced him with a new 6-3 to fly to the second round and meet Fognini, a rival he won in thirteen of the previous 17, with the Italian who defeated him in 2015 at Flushing Meadows.
