Uruguayan Pablo Cuevas lifts his head, and sees a Everest. It is never a good taste dish a duel with Rafael Nadal, the man who does not lift the foot of the accelerator or in training; Nor, of course, in Perth, where number one signed his second individual victory and returned to certify another triumph of Spain, the second in the first two commitments of the group stage. The rooms, then, are already in sight. He did his homework first Roberto Bautista, which as he did at the premiere again took a walk (6-1 and 6-2 to Franco Roncadelli, in 58 minutes) before Nadal left his rubric (6-2 and 6-1, in 1h 13m) and Feliciano López and Pablo Carreño finished off in the doubles (6-1, 3-6 and 10-3 to Ariel Behar and Juan Martín Fumeaux).
With Manacor, life is much easier.
The number one says, with 100 more points in his pocket after the first two episodes in the ATP Cup, that his motivation stems from what tennis himself offers, so that he squeezes his sport, tastes it day by day and match by match, without exception. He is not in Perth to warm up engines or look like palm, but to win. And, therefore, the good of Cuevas did not leave the slightest gap to dream. Soup soup, knocked down the Uruguayan leader, who stole a couple of breaks in the first sleeve and he stabbed him with another muscle show in the second, when he was already playing down.
He closed the first partial Cuevas with a lack of standing at the service, but did not even ask for the review. The veteran, 34 years old and 45 years of the world, was back because he hurried his last drops of tennis after avoiding a knee injury that, he was told, was definitive; This is not the case, but he was pissed off after a complaint to the chair judge that he did not attend, so he was showing himself and giving himself up. Opposite was Nadal, at an outstanding tone when the year has just begun to walk, nothing to do when in 2019 the course kicked back.
What is now is very different. It is like a bull and drags the powerful inertia of the previous course, as if there had been no pause. It offered a high level, finer than the day of the premiere before Nikoloz Basilashvili, and this time there was not the slightest tangle. Right, backhand, firm to liquidate. Everything worked, and Spain is making full progress towards the clash with Japan on Wednesday (3.00, Tdp), with the first place in Group B at stake and without giving up a single set. They also convince the Japanese, who at the moment are not missing their referent, Kei Nishikori, injured. This Monday they defeated Georgia 2-1, thanks to the triumphs of Go Soeda (4-6, 6-3 and 6-2 to Aleksandre Metreveli) and Yoshihito Nishioka (6- and 6-3 to Nikoloz Basilashvili), failing later in the doubles
South Africa and Austria are replenished
Who does not allow a slip is Baptist, who in the blink of an eye had already solved his second appearance. From walk to ride, the Castellón, nine in the world, again faced an opponent yet to become, tender, tender on this occasion because the Uruguayan Franco Roncadelli is 19 years old and does not even appear in the ranking individual. The boy faced his most important game so far and did what he could, or rather what the Spanish left him, which was rather little. Bautista is a serious guy who does not usually loosen even in the parcheesi, so he lit the pilot and developed his crushing ball.
If the day of the premiere recorded a devastating result –6-0 double against Georgian Aleksandre Metreveli-, this time he awarded three games on another day of training, ideal again to be gaining pace and adapting to the competition before the ground really tilts and the first ramps of the tournament arrive. Japan, the third stop in the group phase, will require another step. In any case, Spain does not lower the piston and Bautista undertook with seriousness a crash in which he had no clues to his adversary, a left-handed boy who left good details and left with a smile from ear to ear.
On the other hand, South Africa refused on this second day and compensated the defeat of the first day against Serbia with a win against Chile (3-0) in Group A. Meanwhile, Croatia won against Poland (2-1) in the duel decisive in pairs and heads the E, in which Austria complicated Argentina (3-0).
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