Tag: Rafael Nadal

Novak Djokovic defeated Rafael Nadal at the Paris Olympics on Monday, claiming a 6-1, 6-4 victory in the pair’s 60th and potentially last meeting.

It was 24-time Grand Slam champion Djokovic’s 31st win in a rivalry which began on the same Roland Garros clay courts in 2006.

Nadal was largely outclassed in the much-anticipated encounter, only coming briefly to life when he won four games in a row in the second set.

“I’m very relieved,” said Djokovic. “Everything was going my way, I was 6-1, 4-0 up but I played a sloppy service game and gave him chances.”

He added: “I never thought back in 2006 that we’d still be playing each other almost 20 years later.”

In a sign of the wear and tear the pair have endured in recent months, Novak Djokovic wore a protective strapping around his right knee while Rafael Nadal’s right thigh was heavily strapped.

But Djokovic played freely, forcing Nadal to scamper around Court Philippe Chatrier where the Spaniard had collected 14 of his 22 Grand Slam titles.

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The Serb raced to a 4-0 lead, on the back of a double break, and held for 5-0 before Nadal stopped the rot much to the relief of a packed, sweltering crowd.

Djokovic pocketed the one-sided opener when 2008 Olympic gold medallist Nadal ballooned a forehand wide of the mark.

The statistics made grim reading for the 38-year-old who managed to eke out just four points off the Djokovic serve in the first set.

There was no respite for Nadal, playing just his seventh tournament of an injury-plagued season, as Djokovic again carved out a double break for a 4-0 lead in the second set.

Rafael Djokovic, seeking a first Olympic gold medal to add to his 24 Grand Slam triumphs, surprisingly handed Rafael Nadal a lifeline when he served up a double fault to be broken for the first time.

Nadal retrieved the second break to claw his way back from 0-4 to 4-4 as the top seed went suddenly off the boil.

Novak Djokovic responded in style, a drop-shot leaving Nadal flat-footed as the Serb broke for 5-4 on a fourth break point and clinched victory in style with an ace.

Despite his defeat on Monday, Nadal still has hopes of a Paris Olympics gold medal in the men’s doubles where he is playing alongside Carlos Alcaraz.

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Rafael Nadal lost his first final in two years on Sunday as the Spaniard went down 6-3, 6-2 to Portugal’s Nuno Borges at the clay-court Bastad Open.

The Spanish tennis great had shown signs of a return to form in Scandinavia as he made an impressive run to the final, just one week before tennis at the Olympic Games gets underway on the clay in Paris.

But Nadal, rather than celebrating his 64th title on the surface and first since Roland Garros 2022, was dominated by Borges as he struggled to find fluency with his serve and groundstrokes.

“I don’t know what to say. I think I was wishing for this moment for a while already,” said Borges in his post-match interview.

“It’s crazy, in tennis it doesn’t happen when you expect it sometimes. I know we all wanted Rafa to win, a part of me wished that too, but something even bigger inside of me really pushed through today… I’m just really happy overall. I really don’t know what to say, I’m very emotional.”

Borges was the first to make headway in the match when he broke the Spaniard’s serve to go 3-1 up, with Nadal saving break points before overcooking a forehand down the line.

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But the 14-time French Open winner struck back immediately on the Borges serve, earning two break-back points before the Portuguese dumped a forehand into the net from inside the service box.

But neither player could quite grab the ascendancy in the first set as Borges quickly ran up a 0-40 lead in the next service game, converting his second break point with a perfectly executed drop shot.

Rafael Nadal was struggling to find his first serve but managed to hold just his second service game of the opening set to force Borges to serve one more time. The world number 51 kept his nerve to do just that.

The 38-year-old showed signs of his old self serving at deuce in the first game of the second set with a booming forehand winner down the line before he eventually held but that was one of the few highlights for Nadal on the day.

Borges then struck at 2-2 as he broke Nadal’s serve for the first time in the second set and the fourth time overall to edge ahead.

The 27-year-old followed it up by winning the next three games, sealing a maiden career title in his first-ever match-up against the former world number one with an ace.

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Rafael Nadal confirmed on Thursday he will miss Wimbledon to focus on the Paris Olympics, which will be played on the clay courts at Roland Garros.

The announcement came a day after Spanish tennis chiefs said 14-time French Open champion Rafael Nadal would team up with Carlos Alcaraz at the Olympics in the French capital, which start late next month.

Nadal, 38, lost in the first round at Roland Garros last month and indicated he was likely to skip Wimbledon, played on grass courts, where he was champion in 2008 and 2010.

The injury-plagued Spaniard, who has slumped to 264 in the world rankings, said after his exit to eventual runner-up Alexander Zverev in Paris that switching surfaces would not be “smart”.

“It looks difficult to make a transition to grass, having the Olympics again on clay,” he said at the time.

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The former world number one, who won the Olympics singles title in Beijing in 2008, only returned to competition in April after missing most of the past 16 months through injury.

On Thursday, Rafael Nadal confirmed on social media that he would not be travelling to London to take part in the third Grand Slam of the year.

“During my post-match press conference at Roland Garros I was asked about my summer calendar and since then I have been practising on clay,” he tweeted.

“It was announced yesterday that I will play at the summer Olympics in Paris, my last Olympics.”

He added: “With this goal, we believe that the best for my body is not to change surface and keep playing on clay until then.

“It’s for this reason that I will miss playing at the Championships this year at Wimbledon. I am saddened not to be able to live this year the great atmosphere of that amazing event that will always be in my heart, and be with all the British fans that always gave me great support. I will miss you all.”

Rafael Nadal, who teamed up with Marc Lopez to win the Olympic doubles title at the 2016 Rio Games, will warm up for Paris at the Bastad clay court tournament in Sweden, which starts on July 15.

The veteran, second on the all-time list of men’s Grand Slam winners behind Novak Djokovic, will form a doubles team at the Olympics with newly crowned French Open champion and reigning Wimbledon champion Alcaraz.

Both will also compete in singles at the tennis tournament in Paris, which starts on July 27.

Nadal, who has a 7-5 win-loss record this year, said before the start of the recent French Open that there was a chance he might not be back at Roland Garros but insisted he was still keeping the door “100 percent open” on continuing his career.

His withdrawal from Wimbledon, which starts on July 1, is a big blow for organisers, with Djokovic a major doubt after undergoing a knee operation.

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Rafael Nadal’s record-breaking French Open career came to its likely end on Monday when the 14-time champion slumped to a demoralising first-round defeat against Alexander Zverev.

Nadal, who turns 38 on June 3, went down 6-3, 7-6 (7/5), 6-3 to world number four Zverev, suffering only his fourth loss in 116 matches at Roland Garros since his 2005 title-winning debut.

It was the first time he had been defeated in Paris in the opening round and will again lead to questions over his long-term future in the sport.

“I don’t know if this is the last time I will be here, I am not 100% sure but if it is then I wanted to enjoy it,” said Nadal.

“The feelings today are difficult to describe in words.”

Plagued by injuries, which had limited him to just four events since January last year, former world number one Nadal is now 275 in the rankings and was unseeded in Paris.

However, he insisted on the eve of the tournament that he was “100% keeping the door open” on his future in a sport which has brought him 22 Grand Slam titles.

In a repeat of the 2022 French Open semi-final, which Rafael Nadal won when Zverev quit with ankle ligament damage, the Spaniard had his chances.

He was a break of serve up in the second and third sets, only to be pinned back on both occasions by his in-form 27-year-old opponent.

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Chants of “Rafa, Rafa” had loudly echoed under the roof of Court Philippe Chatrier which was shut tight against the torrential rain sweeping across the grounds and bringing havoc to the schedule.

They subsided to silence when Nadal was broken to love in his opening service game and he was left to regret his inability to convert two break points in the fourth game.

Rafael Nadal saved two set points in the ninth game but surrendered the opener after 50 minutes when he buried a loose forehand into the net.

It was only the fourth opening set he had lost at Roland Garros.

Nadal broke for the first time in the match to lead 3-2 in the second set but couldn’t back up the advantage and handed the break back to three-time semi-finalist Zverev as he served for the set.

A tense tie-breaker followed which the German claimed, buoyed by stretching to 5/3 on the back of a gruelling 19-shot rally.

Nadal dug deep and with the likes of Novak Djokovic, Carlos Alcaraz and Iga Swiatek having watched from the packed stands, he broke and held for 2-0 in the third set.

However, Zverev again roared back to level at 2-2 before a besieged Nadal had to save four break points in a 13-minute fifth game to stay in contention.

The effort was too much and a composed Zverev was soon 4-3 up and the match was over when Rafael Nadal fired a forehand wide and long.

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Rafael Nadal was drawn to face world number four Alexander Zverev in a blockbuster opening match at his farewell French Open tournament on Thursday.

Defending men’s champion and 24-time Grand Slam winner Novak Djokovic will face French veteran Pierre Hugues-Herbert in his opener.

Nadal, who has won Roland Garros on 14 occasions, is unseeded after injury saw his ranking plummet to 276.

He and Zverev met in the semi-finals in 2022 when the German was forced to retire after suffering a serious ankle injury.

Nadal, the winner of 22 Grand Slam titles, will turn 38 next week and this season will be his last on tour.

He holds a 7-3 winning head-to-head record against Germany’s Zverev with five of those victories coming on clay.

Zverev, 27, arrives in Paris on the back of lifting the Rome Open title last weekend.

“I’m going to play the French Open thinking that I can give my all, 100 per cent,” said Rafael Nadal after a second round exit in Rome last week.

As well as 14 titles in Paris, Nadal can boast a record of 112 wins and just three losses, two of which came against Djokovic who will be chasing a fourth French Open title.

“I imagine that looking at the draw, Nadal is not going to be delighted,” said French Open tournament director Amelie Mauresmo.

“Zverev is in very good shape, obviously it looks very complicated. But Nadal is a warrior, an extraordinary competitor. It’s Rafa so anything is possible.”

Djokovic turned 37 on Wednesday and marked the occasion by winning the 1,100th match of his career in Geneva.

The Serb has yet to win a title in 2024 with runs to the semi-finals at the Australian Open and Monte Carlo Masters his best performances.

Following Thursday’s draw, Djokovic is seeded to face Zverev in the semi-finals.

World number two Jannik Sinner, who took Djokovic’s Australian Open title in January, faces Christopher Eubanks of the United States.

Third-seeded Wimbledon champion Carlos Alcaraz, a semi-finalist in Paris in 2023, plays a qualifier.

Sinner and Alcaraz are seeded to meet in the semi-finals but both men have been suffering from injuries which forced them to skip the Rome event.

Andy Murray, the 2016 runner-up, is also competing at the tournament for the final time.

The 37-year-old tackles 2015 champion Stan Wawrinka, 39, in a battle of grizzled Grand Slam veterans.

The pair have met 22 times in a two-decade rivalry with Murray boasting a 13-9 edge.

Three of those clashes have come at Roland Garros with Murray winning in the semi-finals in 2016 while the Swiss came out on top in the last-four in 2017 and first round in 2020.

In the women’s draw, top seed and world number one Swiatek will take on a qualifier with Osaka facing Lucia Bronzetti of Italy in their openers before a potential second round clash.

Swiatek is bidding to win a fifth major and fourth French Open title.

“It feels like home here,” said Swiatek who arrives at the tournament with clay-court titles in Madrid and Rome under her belt.

Former world number one Osaka, now ranked 134, has never got past the third round in Paris. Bronzetti, the world number 48, has yet to win a main draw in two visits.

Osaka, 26, has endured a bittersweet relationship with the French Open.

In 2021, she was fined for opting out of mandatory media commitments before withdrawing from the competition after just one match insisting she was protecting her mental health.

Osaka missed the 2023 edition due to being pregnant before giving birth to a baby girl in July.

Swiatek, meanwhile, is bidding to become the first player to lift three successive women’s titles in Paris since Justine Henin in 2007.

World number two Aryna Sabalenka starts against 101-ranked Erika Andreeva of Russia.

Third seed and US Open champion Coco Gauff faces a qualifier in the first round and is seeded to face Swiatek in the semi-finals.

Double Australian Open champion Sabalenka is seeded to take on former Wimbledon winner Elena Rybakina in the last four.

Defending men’s champion and 24-time Grand Slam winner Novak Djokovic will face French veteran Pierre Hugues-Herbert in his opener.

Rafael Nadal, who has won Roland Garros on 14 occasions, is unseeded after injury saw his ranking plummet to 276.

He and Zverev met in the semi-finals in 2022 when the German was forced to retire after suffering a serious ankle injury.

Rafael Nadal, the winner of 22 Grand Slam titles, will turn 38 next week and this season will be his last on tour.

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He holds a 7-3 winning head-to-head record against Germany’s Zverev with five of those victories coming on clay.

Zverev, 27, arrives in Paris on the back of lifting the Rome Open title last weekend.

“I’m going to play the French Open thinking that I can give my all, 100 per cent,” said Nadal after a second round exit in Rome last week.

As well as 14 titles in Paris, Nadal can boast a record of 112 wins and just three losses, two of which came against Djokovic who will be chasing a fourth French Open title.

“I imagine that looking at the draw, Nadal is not going to be delighted,” said French Open tournament director Amelie Mauresmo.

“Zverev is in very good shape, obviously it looks very complicated. But Nadal is a warrior, an extraordinary competitor. It’s Rafa so anything is possible.”

Djokovic turned 37 on Wednesday and marked the occasion by winning the 1,100th match of his career in Geneva.

The Serb has yet to win a title in 2024 with runs to the semi-finals at the Australian Open and Monte Carlo Masters his best performances.

Following Thursday’s draw, Djokovic is seeded to face Zverev in the semi-finals.

World number two Jannik Sinner, who took Djokovic’s Australian Open title in January, faces Christopher Eubanks of the United States.

Third-seeded Wimbledon champion Carlos Alcaraz, a semi-finalist in Paris in 2023, plays a qualifier.

Sinner and Alcaraz are seeded to meet in the semi-finals but both men have been suffering from injuries which forced them to skip the Rome event.

Andy Murray, the 2016 runner-up, is also competing at the tournament for the final time.

The 37-year-old tackles 2015 champion Stan Wawrinka, 39, in a battle of grizzled Grand Slam veterans.

The pair have met 22 times in a two-decade rivalry with Murray boasting a 13-9 edge.

Three of those clashes have come at Roland Garros with Murray winning in the semi-finals in 2016 while the Swiss came out on top in the last-four in 2017 and first round in 2020.

In the women’s draw, top seed and world number one Iga Swiatek will take on a qualifier with Osaka facing Lucia Bronzetti of Italy in their openers before a potential second-round clash.

Swiatek is bidding to win a fifth major and fourth French Open title.

“It feels like home here,” said Swiatek who arrives at the tournament with clay-court titles in Madrid and Rome under her belt.

Former world number one Osaka, now ranked 134, has never got past the third round in Paris. Bronzetti, the world number 48, has yet to win a main draw in two visits.

Osaka, 26, has endured a bittersweet relationship with the French Open.

In 2021, she was fined for opting out of mandatory media commitments before withdrawing from the competition after just one match insisting she was protecting her mental health.

Osaka missed the 2023 edition due to being pregnant before giving birth to a baby girl in July.

Swiatek, meanwhile, is bidding to become the first player to lift three successive women’s titles in Paris since Justine Henin in 2007.

World number two Aryna Sabalenka starts against 101-ranked Erika Andreeva of Russia.

Third seed and US Open champion Coco Gauff faces a qualifier in the first round and is seeded to face Swiatek in the semi-finals.

Double Australian Open champion Sabalenka is seeded to take on former Wimbledon winner Elena Rybakina in the last four.

READ: Rafael Nadal falls to Hubert Hurkacz in Rome Open second round

Rafael Nadal will bring down the curtain on his 19-year French Open career with the likelihood of adding to his 14 titles greatly diminished before he leaves behind a record and reputation unlikely ever to be matched.

The great Spaniard, a 22-time Grand Slam champion, won his first title at Roland Garros as a teenager in 2005. A week on Monday, he will celebrate his 38th birthday.

A former world number one, who is now at 276 in the world, Nadal has only played 15 matches since January last year as a hip injury and then a muscle tear were added to a depressing history of physical ailments which have forced him to miss 12 Grand Slam tournaments in his career.

Whether or not the 2024 French Open becomes number 13 will soon become apparent as the draw for the event takes place on Thursday afternoon.

“I’m going to play the tournament thinking that I can give my all, 100 per cent,” explained Nadal after a second-round exit in Rome last week.

“And if 100 per cent is not enough to win a match, I’ll accept that. But I don’t want to step onto court knowing that I have no chance. If there’s a 0.01% chance, I want to explore that and give it a go.”

As well as 14 titles in Paris, Nadal can boast a record of 112 wins and just three losses, two of which came against career-long rival Novak Djokovic.

He is also held in remarkably high esteem.

At his first training session on Court Philippe Chatrier at Roland Garros on Monday an estimated 6,000 people turned up to watch, many chanting his name.

“We have to enjoy the time he has left on court, evaluate it, and be aware that it’s very unlikely that something like that will happen again,” said coach Carlos Moya during the recent Madrid Open.

“Personally, I’m never on court when he enters or leaves, but I am this year because I like seeing the love he gets from the people when he steps on court.

“He’s one of the great stars of this sport, he’s about to retire, and it’s really amazing to see that.”

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Nadal isn’t the only A-list talent under a Paris cloud ahead of the tournament starting on Sunday.

Defending champion and record 24-time Grand Slam title winner Djokovic, whose three titles in Paris put him alongside Gustavo Kuerten, Mats Wilander and Ivan Lendl, is enduring a title dry spell unseen since 2018.

Back then, he also reached May without a trophy before crashing to a shock last-16 defeat at the French Open to unheralded Marco Cecchinato of Italy.

This season, Djokovic has lost his Australian Open title and has yet to make a final on tour.

Adding injury to insult, he was hit on the head by a falling water bottle in Rome, a freak accident which he claimed caused nausea and dizziness.

In an attempt to gather a degree of clay-court confidence ahead of the French Open, Djokovic, who turns 37 on Wednesday, grabbed a late wild card in the ongoing Geneva tournament.

Between them, Nadal and Djokovic have carved up the last eight French Open titles while 2009 was the last time a final at Roland Garros did not feature at least one of them.

World number two Jannik Sinner, the man who succeeded Djokovic as Australian Open champion, has been laid low by a hip injury which caused him to skip the Rome Open.

The 22-year-old Italian reached the quarter-finals of the French Open on his debut in 2020 where he was defeated by Nadal in straight sets.

Sinner has an extra incentive to progress deep in Paris as he could depose Djokovic as world number one.

Carlos Alcaraz, the reigning Wimbledon champion, also skipped Rome to nurse an arm injury.

The world number three took the first set off Djokovic in their semi-final last year before body cramps saw him slip to defeat.

The Spanish crowd-pleaser admitted that his sudden and dramatically diminished physical state was caused by the fear of facing Djokovic.

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Rafael Nadal was knocked out of the Rome Open in the second round on Saturday with a 6-1, 6-3 loss to Poland’s Hubert Hurkacz.

Defeat to seventh seed Hurkacz casts doubt over whether clay-court icon Nadal will play at the upcoming French Open, where he has won a record 14 titles.

Nadal has said that he will only play at Roland Garros if he feels competitive after a raft of injury problems over the last two years which have left him languishing 305th in the world rankings.

The manner of his elimination in his first-ever encounter with 27-year-old Hurkacz was a step backwards after reaching the last 16 in Madrid.

Rafael Nadal held his own in the first two games in the first set, which took 26 minutes to complete, but then fell away as errors handed Hurkacz points.

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The 37-year-old twice gave away breaks of serve with miscued drop shots in the first set which Hurkacz closed out in 49 minutes as he blew through five straight games.

The match was as good as done when Hubert Hurkacz, who did not drop a single service game, broke Rafael Nadal in the third game of the second set to set up a famous victory.

That level of dominance over Nadal on clay, much less a court where he has won a record 10 titles, would have been unimaginable a few short years ago.

But Hurkacz will face Tomas Etcheverry in the third round of Rome after likely ending Nadal’s love affair with Rome as the 22-time Grand Slam winner looks set to call time on his career at the end of the season.

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Rafael Nadal battled into the second round of the Rome Open on Thursday after bouncing back from a set down to beat qualifier Zizou Bergs 4-6, 6-3, 6-4.

Clay court icon Nadal will face world number nine Hubert Hurkacz next as he continued his comeback from injury with a punishing match against his Belgian opponent which lasted nearly three hours.

Also on Nadal’s side of the draw are last year’s winner, world number four Daniil Medvedev, and the beaten finalist Holger Rune.

Nadal has in recent times been a shadow of the player who has won 22 Grand Slams in a storied career which has also brought a record 10 titles in Rome, his most recent in 2021.

The 37-year-old has struggled with injury, dropping down to 305 in the world rankings after missing almost all of last year.

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He returned in April from another three-month lay-off with a second-round exit in Barcelona before reaching the last 16 in Madrid last week.

He showed glimpses of his old self against Bergs who is ranked 108 in the world and is an eight-time title winner on the Challenger tour.

Outsider Bergs, 24, had in previous tournaments taken sets off high-profile players like Stefanos Tsitsipas and last year’s losing Rome Open finalist Holger Rune, and he pushed his illustrious rival all the way.

The big-hitting Belgian briefly looked like he might win the biggest match of his career to date before Rafael Nadal fought back to take a hard-fought victory.

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Rafael Nadal said he is doing his best to “keep dreaming” after he extended his stay at the Madrid Open by winning a three-hour tussle with Argentina’s Pedro Cachin 6-1, 6-7 (5/7), 6-3 on Monday.

Contesting his home tournament one last time before retirement, the five-time champion gave the world number 91 his shirt after Cachin asked him for a memento from the match.

“Some moments good, some moments not good. I found a way to be through. I think in the third set with some mistakes I was still able to be a bit unpredictable,” Nadal said of his roller-coaster third-round victory.

“Now I’m enjoying. Let’s see how I wake up tomorrow. Playing at home means everything to me, just try my best to keep dreaming.”

Nadal’s reward is a Tuesday last-16 clash with the 30th-seeded Jiri Lehecka, who beat the Mallorcan in a practice session a week ago.

The 37-year-old has been dealing with physical issues, which have limited him to  eight matches this season.

Asked if it would surprise him if he managed to beat Lehecka on Tuesday, Nadal said: “Yes, more so after today’s match. I will face a player who is playing at a very high level, who has a very powerful serve.”

While Nadal has already beaten a higher-ranked opponent this week — number 11 Alex de Minaur — he believes the quality of Lehecka’s ball “is another step up”.

Top-seeded Jannik Sinner beat world number 72 Pavel Kotov 6-2, 7-5.

Kazakhstan’s Alexander Bublik beat American Ben Shelton 3-6, 7-6 (7/2), 6-4  to reach the fourth round, where he will face number three seed Daniil Medvedev.

Ons Jabeur called out organisers of European tournaments for giving men preferential treatment at combined events and said “they need to respect women more.”

Jabeur, the 2022 champion in Madrid, was speaking after dismissing ninth-seeded Jelena Ostapenko 6-0, 6-4 to set up a last-eight clash with Madison Keys.

“I feel like we have a long way to go, especially here in Madrid and in Rome, in Europe in general,” she said.

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Jabeur said women players were not given the same access to practice courts and were on television less.

“The way they treat women here and men, they’re completely different,” she added.

“Here in Spain, I would love to go to the hotel and open the TV and see a woman’s tennis match.

“How can you inspire young girls without showing any matches?”

Top-seeded Iga Swiatek dropped the opening game before sweeping the next 12 against home favourite Sara Sorribes Tormo 6-1, 6-0 and advancing to a quarter-final meeting with Brazilian lefty Beatriz Haddad Maia.

Keys won an all-American battle, knocking out third-seeded Coco Gauff 7-6 (7/4), 4-6, 6-4 to reach the last eight in Madrid for the first time.

The 29-year-old missed the start of the season with a shoulder injury, which sidelined her for four months.

Gauff, who was broken seven times and hit 13 doubles faults, lamented her serving.

“Not holding serve honestly is what cost me the match,” said the reigning US Open champion.

“My serve is evolving and there’s a lot of minor changes being made,” she said. “When it’s on, it’s definitely a weapon and I guess it’s just making it more consistent.”

Also through to the quarter-finals is Mirra Andreeva, who celebrated her 17th birthday with a 7-6 (7/2), 6-4 win over Italian 12th seed Jasmine Paolini, a year on from her dream run to the Madrid fourth round on her WTA debut.

The Russian teenager fell to eventual champion Aryna Sabalenka at the Caja Magica 12 months ago and could get a rematch with the world number two, who faced Danielle Collins in the last match of the day on centre court.

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Rafael Nadal said he is doing his best to “keep dreaming” after he extended his stay at the Madrid Open by winning a three-hour tussle with Argentina’s Pedro Cachin 6-1, 6-7 (5/7), 6-3 on Monday.

Contesting his home tournament one last time before retirement, the five-time champion exchanged some warm words with Cachin at the net and gave the world number 91 a match shirt as a memento.

Nadal’s reward is a last-16 clash with the 30th-seeded Jiri Lehecka on Tuesday.

“Some moments good, some moments not good. I found a way to be through. I think in the third set with some mistakes I was still able to be a bit unpredictable,” Nadal said of his roller-coaster victory.

“Now I’m enjoying. Let’s see how I wake up tomorrow. Playing at home means everything to me, just try my best to keep dreaming.”

Since the start of the 2005 season, Nadal has lost just once in 163 matches against players ranked outside the top 50 on clay.

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Cachin’s two wins in Madrid Open this week were his first of the season, as he entered the tournament with zero wins from 11 matches contested in 2024.

But those numbers do not reflect the level showcased by the 29-year-old, who saved nine out of 18 break points against Rafael Nadal, and pushed the 22-time major champion to his limits.

In a dominant first set, Nadal fired 14 winners and made just nine unforced errors to take the lead in 47 minutes.

He recovered from a double-break deficit in the second set to force a tiebreak but couldn’t hold off another surge from Cachin, who converted his first chance to level the match and take it into a decider.

Nadal had two chances to go up a double break early in the final set but Cachin sidestepped both to hold and soon evened up the score at 2-2.

The Argentine could not hold his level though as Rafael Nadal found an opening once again and this time did not flinch, storming through to the fourth round on Cachin’s 41st unforced error of the match.

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