The Balearic falls on his Paris-Bercy debut and has virtually no chance of becoming number one by the end of the year
It was not a happy return for Rafael Nadal at Paris-Bercy. The Balearic promised a good night in the French capital as he enjoyed a set and break in his favor on Wednesday’s debut, but American Tommy Paul suffocated the Spaniards, beating him 3-6, 7-6 and 6- 1 on the brink of midnight in Paris.
Nadal was rusty and sometimes out of rhythm, as is logical after a two-month absence and the personal moment he experienced, with the birth of his son just a few weeks ago. But despite the inactivity, he gave an acceptable level and that enabled him to win the match almost two sets. Sweat gripped the Spaniard, however, who eventually ran out and was outdone by a Paul who was very accurate with his aggressiveness and landed 30 winning shots.
For the sad ending, Nadal flirted with the win. He came back from the first set with a partial 5-1 and scored the 6-3 after 40 minutes of fighting under the roof of the Accor Arena. It looked like the man from Manacor had it in his hand, leading 2-1 as soon as the second set started and serving in favor. It was time to wrap up, but Paul, a good friend of Nick Kyrgios and also a friend of some anarchy, started letting go of his arm and wouldn’t let go of Nadal. After that ‘break’ in favor of the Spaniards, the game started to run its course several times.
Nadal would not enjoy a breakball for the entire set and Paul got better and better, to the point where he had a set point in the tenth game and forced a ‘tiebreak’, starting the Manacor man’s decline.
Paul delivered nothing, he took the tiebreak and the game was over. The American allowed only one game in a third set that lasted barely more than half an hour, in which Nadal felt uneasy and was drenched in sweat.
The time-out took its toll and with this defeat in the second round of Paris-Bercy, Carlos Alcaraz, who is still alive in the tournament, increases the difference in the ranking to 1,100 points. Nadal will only be able to add 1,500 for the remainder of the season and for that he will need to win the Turin ATP Finals undefeated, a tournament he has never won in his sports career.
This will be the last stop of the season for the Balearic Islands, who will not play the Davis Cup and who will enjoy some exhibitions in South America with Casper Ruud to put the curtain on the track.
Source: La Verdad
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