So much so that back pain feared Rafael Nadal’s slowdown at the Australian Open and his attempt to break the tie with Roger Federer for the historic record of most men’s tennis Grand Slam titles.
With three victories this week, the Spaniard will be the only one with 21.
So far, they have not given up a single set in four games, settling for the 13th time in the quarterfinals in Melbourne and the 43rd in the big events, after losing on Monday 6-3, 6 -4, 6 -2. Fabio Fognini, 16th head of series
And, in addition, counting at the beginning of last year’s French Open, Nadal has won the last 33 Grand Slam sets.
He was exultant after defeating the Italian Fognini, in what was his first major test of this Australian Open.
“In the first set we gave the best level of the tournament,” Nadal summed up. And what did he do?
Quite simply, according to the 34-year-old player: He finally managed to practice for two consecutive days after a back discomfort that appeared three weeks ago and determined him to take care. But not everything is perfect, he warned. “I couldn’t practice properly for 19 days, but yesterday I managed to work harder,” Nadal said. This is a deficit they start with compared to others. The perspective is different now than 5 or 6 days ago. The situation has certainly improved. “
“I think this game, with a few long points, helped me a lot for the next one,” he added.
It will be on Wednesday against the Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas (seed), who advanced when his opponent in the eighth, the Italian Matteo Berrettini, (seed 9), had to leave due to an abdominal injury suffered in the previous round. Before it was officially announced that Berrettini was retiring from the tournament, Nadal accidentally broke the news when the press informed him that Tsitsipas would be his next rival. Nadal is 6-1 against the 22-year-old Greek. Nadal defeated Tsitsipas 6-2, 6-4, 6-0 in the 2019 Australian Open semifinals.
Russian tennis players make history
Quarterfinals
The other quarterfinals in his key sector will face two Russians: Daniil Medvedev and Andrey Rublev. A third Russian, Aslan Karatsev, 114th in the standings and coming from the standings, had already passed the tour. It will be the first time that there will be three Russians in the quarterfinals since the establishment of the current format. Medvedev (4th boss), finalist of the US Open 2019, eliminated the American Mackenzie McDonald with 6-4, 6-2, 6-3.