Rafa Nadal continues to refine his set-up for the clay court season. The Spaniard took another step on his path to Roland Garros on Thursday with an emphatic victory on his debut at the Rome Masters 1000.
He won 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 against Belgian Zizou Bergs in a match where he didn’t need too much time to impose his superiority. After a few early transition games, the former number 1 accelerated to get a break in the fourth game.
Solid in service and more aggressive from the back of the court than Godó or Madrid, Nadal started strongly, making it clear that his intention was to dominate the court and don’t give options to your rival.
however, A series of unforced errors allowed Bergs to recover the break and subsequently make the score 3-3. The Belgian reaction did not end there. With more and more confidence, he settled on the court and took advantage of the many errors of an increasingly nervous and skittish Nadal.
A second break in the ninth game put Bergs first set on a plate, and he did not disappoint. Blank closed out a big first set in which he benefited from Nadal’s errors and lack of confidence, going into the locker room with a poor record of 3 winners and 16 unforced errors.
Inflection point
The rest was good for the Spaniard, who started well second quarter marked by heat stroke suffered by a spectator in the first game and it forced the game to stop for more than ten minutes.
Fortunately, it all ended in a scare and the game could continue as normal… and with better feelings for Nadal. The pause helped him calm down and see everything more clearly, the complete opposite of his young rival, whose doubts began to lead him astray.
A comfortable break in the second game allowed him to open a gap on the scoreboarda distance that this time Nadal maintained until the end.
The constant attempt to react a combative Bergs is contained by the champion of 22 Grand Slam titles, who is more experienced in this type of situation, as he showed in the ninth game, when he saved of two break points to close the set 6 -3.
Everything was up in the air for the third set, who never knows which Nadal we will seethe failure of the first race or the solid and reliable of the second.
Doubts were immediately cleared. The best version of the former world number 1 remained in the Foro Italico to the delight of a dedicated audience that enthusiastically cheered every action of the merit of the ten-time champion in Rome.
A break in the third game marked the beginning of the end for the Bergs who, despite continuing to fight until the end, was further overwhelmed by the dominant tennis of an increasingly confident Nadal.
After overcoming a delicate 0-40 with 3-2 on the scoreboard, Nadal headed straight for the victory that put him in the second roundwhere he will meet on Saturday the Polish Hubert Hurkacz, seventh seed, and surprisingly he has not met despite the many years they have been on the circuit together.
Source: La Verdad
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