Masters 1000 Rome – second round –
Rafael Nadal leaves angry, and not because he hasn’t tried. He leaves defeated by Hubert Hurkacz (6-1 and 6-3, in 1h 33m) and hurt because his tennis today reaches as far as he does; not to the extent he would like. It’s been almost 38 years, but the champion’s pride is still there, intact. As anticipated two days before, after the first appearance in Rome, the test has been satisfactory in physical terms – strength in the middle of a major test, and the body can endure – but the level offered has not been enough to put him against the ropes to the rival, a tennis player with a high profile – two Masters 1000 on his resume, the same one who (unknowingly) fired Roger Federer with a 6-0 at Wimbledon – and incontestable in this noon cross that seals his circle at the Foro Italico, with 10 trophies and 70 victories behind them. Almost nothing. Nadal seals another folder and now focuses on Paris, now with no room for more experiments than those that the last burst of training can grant. The French great is two weeks away.
That Hurkacz (27 years old and ninth in the world) was going to be a major test was intuited beforehand, but the start of the match makes it crystal clear. Nadal prowls the break for 14 minutes, but the Pole saves the first turn of service with five aborted options; then, conversely, it is the Spaniard who repels and resists for 11, by avoiding the rival’s two possibilities and emerging victorious from a situation that little by little is being revealed as misleading, because Hurkacz—peaks of 232 km/h at serve—begins to feel superior and the action progressively opens a gap. The confidence of one feeds the doubts of the other, and once the first break is registered, for 3-1, the opponent becomes stronger and stronger. Unthinkable in other times and other circumstances, the Mallorcan is today a vulnerable competitor who continues to rebel. Wise is, however, Mother Nature.
Nadal is showing strength – the average of his forehand rises significantly, from 121 km/h in the debut against Zizou Bergs to 132 km/h this time – but he is still not fine in his mobility and insecurity in his supports. places him at the mercy of Hurkacz’s hammer. The Pole makes the most of his service and does not hesitate, convinced that if there is an opportunity to sink his teeth into the Mallorcan it is today, here and now; So he influences and hits, applied and firm all the time, while the proposal of the champion of 22 majors is cracking and no solutions arrive, leading the situation into a terrain of haste and impotence that he has rarely visited. He arrives late, and wherever he sends, there is the giant, comfortable in that initial phase of the counterattack and even more so when he definitively takes control of the game.
Nadal seems tired – he spent almost three hours solving the debut – and the gestures don’t quite keep up with him either. He reverses well with his right, hits well from down there, but he lacks naturalness in his maneuvers and as the distance increases, frustration appears. Very strange, that blow to the knee; Very rare, seeing him frequently make mistakes. It is a meditative Nadal, humanized. Thinking while playing is a bad sign. The test is revealing. Compete? Yes. At the level you want? Only he knows. It wasn’t a bad set, but no matter how many times he thinks about it, he can’t find a way to reverse the increasingly complicated situation. Hurkacz does not give in, pure ice, superb in his record, and the course of the second set finally translates into a cumbersome continuation that offers no way around: there is no comeback, neither feint nor epic. Simply a check.
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