The Spaniard closes the preparation for the Australian Open with his sixth defeat in the last seven games
“I am with a brutal distrust”. These are the words that Rafa Nadal told his coaches, Marc López and Gustavo Marcaccio, as Alex de Miñaur began to take victory in the United Cup. The Spaniard did not lift his head. This Monday he lost his sixth match in the circuit of the last seven he has played and says goodbye to the team tournament with another disappointment, the last before the Australian Open kicks off on January 16.
Nadal fell to De Miñaur (3-6, 6-1 and 7-5) in another three-hour match (2:43) in which he flinched after a great first set until the Demon, inflamed by his crowd, placed another defeat in the Spanish locker. 0-2 at the start of the season, very different from the 20-0 he started in 2022.
One constant is starting to come in these Nadal defeats and it’s the inability to close the games. In three of the last six defeats, the man from Manacor has taken the first set and has done so with authority. The game started with signs of an easy, routine win. Especially since against Tommy Paul (Paris-Bercy), Cameron Norrie and De Miñaur (United Cup), the cause of the comebacks, it was eye to eye flawless.
He had beaten De Miñaur himself in the three previous precedents and although he had a big crowd in Sydney, with Lleyton Hewitt also pushing from the bench, the first set predicted Nadal’s fourth win. The Spaniard was on an excellent level, especially with a setback that dropped several bombs and helped him tip the scales to 6-3 in about 45 minutes.
His winning slowness saw him strike first in the second set as well. 6-3 and 1-0 with a break in the advantage, a swipe that makes the end result even more painful. De Minaur, who often appears to wear wheels instead of shoes, was one of the fastest tennis players on the track, winning the next six games in an unexpected slump for Nadal.
The second set was a drama, with Nadal allowing ten break chances on his serve. His downfall gave De Miñaur a different mood, a player with no major wins against the best and certainly stagnant, but able to shine in favorable scenarios like this. With the amazing 6-1 in favor of the Aussie and another decisive third set in the arena, Nadal was struck by suspicion.
The man from Manacor lost three break points with a 1-0 advantage, delivered his serve with unforced errors in the fifth game and, although he recovered immediately, could not create more danger. Not even when he was two points from victory leading 5-4, 30-30 and serving for the Australian.
The loss of the final ten points of the game was the final blow for Nadal, who exits preparations for the Australian Open with a farewell 0-2 and the third time he has started the year with a defeat, after 2004 and 2015. Spaniard He has left behind drops of good tennis and formidable tops, but many doubts and uncertainties.
There are barely two weeks to go before the first Grand Slam of the season and Nadal defends the title and the stack of 2,000 points. By then there is much to improve.
Source: La Verdad
I am Shawn Partain, a journalist and content creator working for the Today Times Live. I specialize in sports journalism, writing articles that cover major sporting events and news stories. With a passion for storytelling and an eye for detail, I strive to be accurate and insightful in my work.
