Rafael Nadal laid the basis for victory in the first set, which lasted 83 minutes. The tie-break alone took almost half an hour. Frenchman Adrian Mannarino was offered the chance to win the opening set on a silver platter. Mannarino held his service games with ease, earned the only break point before the tie-break, led 3-0 and 4-2 in the tie-break and had four set points, one of them on his own serve.
When Nadal secured the first round with his seventh set ball, it meant more than a preliminary decision. After victories over Hubert Hurkacz (ATP 11) and the Russian Aslan Karazew, Mannarino proved no longer capable of any further feats of strength.
Nadal celebrated his eighth win in a row in Melbourne. Before the start of the Australian Open, he had won a preparatory tournament at Melbourne Park two weeks ago. Basically everything has been going well for him since then. It started a week ago with the expulsion of the biggest rival Novak Djokovic. Since then, Yannick Hanfmann and Mannarino have eliminated in-form opponents such as Australia’s Thanasi Kokkinakis and last year’s semi-finalist Aslan Karazew.
