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Rublev celebrates his victory over Nadal.AP
Semifinalist in 2019, when he fell to Fabio Fognini, Nadal gives way in the fight to regain second place in the ranking, a goal he had within reach after the absence of Daniil Medvedev, victim of the coronavirus. The matter is not trivial, given the hypothesis of meeting Novak Djokovic in the semifinals of Roland Garros. He does not have much to blame himself for. He faced an immense, irreducible tennis player, a marvel of physical and mental strength, a brave player, also disciplined in tactics.
Its application in the rest resulted in four double faults by Nadal in the first three service turns (he committed a total of seven). With one of them he lost his serve for the second time in the fifth game. Rublev was not intimidated by the deployment of resources of the number three in the world, so soon fierce to solve the longest of the rallies with a winning parallel backhand as to get a luxury drop from the magn. After two comfortable games, in which he only gave up a total of five games, to Delbonis Y Dimitrov, Nadal ran into a well-planted opponent, who was not weighed for the almost three hours he needed to get rid of Bautista in their round of 16 duel.
Maximum determination
The first obvious sign of the determination with which Rublev faced his third match against Nadal, after failing to get a single set in the two previous appointments, both on fast surface, was how he dealt with the breaking ball that he had to face in the eighth. game of the first set, when he dominated 5-2: he went to the net with a great first serve and defined a volley. Two points later, he will make the partial his.
Short of travel, in his second tournament of the season, Nadal had to face added problems when he lost his serve in the second set. Rublev didn’t get off the wave, immune to his opponent’s response. The left-handed man was monologue, angry, a very rare symptom in a man who has always distinguished himself by controlling his impulses.
The Russian had an open field to define the meeting in a second set with different alternatives. The Russian had three options to reach 4-1 and serve and then with another ball that would have placed him 5-2 and serve. Nadal also missed four chances to regain the serve, before getting it by equaling four. There the Muscovite got stuck, he gave up his service again and with him the set went.
Many of the players on the circuit would have laid down their arms in such circumstances, in front of the best in history on land and after having let him escape alive. But Rublev remained on his feet, determined to carry out his plan. I had already beaten Roger Federer, in Cincinnati, two years ago. Now he was going to collect the precious piece of Nadal.
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