He won 6-2, 6-3 and 6-4, qualifying for the third round, against a rival who offered him more resistance than he had in his debut. Carlos Alcaraz beat Dusan Lajovic.
Again on the Australian day, with the liveliest ball, at 27C, and again with an accessible opponent, in this case coming from the previous phase, Rafael Nadal continued its placid path in the opening rounds of the Australian Open. More demanded than in his debut, the Spaniard gained in confidence and performance to prevail over Yannick Hanfmann by 6-2, 6-3 and 6-4, in two hours and 42 minutes. This Friday search before Karen Khachanov The Benjamin Bonzi his presence in the round of 16.
At 30 years old, without relevant news in a race developed in the suburbs of the circuit, Hanfmann, 126,I went out to Rod Laver loose and determined, seeking to take the initiative, especially in his duty shifts. His backhand generated some initial problems for Nadal, who in the fifth game already had to face a break ball. The Spanish solved it with a kick point, signaling hierarchy. If the left-hander came with a close shoot after his reappearance, with the victory at the ATP 250 in Melbourne, his opponent did not lack a route, with three matches in the qualifying phase and the victory in the first round against the local Thanasi Kokkinakis, recent champion in Adelaide.
Nadal was the first to take a bite out of the marker, with the break in the sixth game, as a result of his best reading of an opponent he had already defeated two years ago in three sets at Roland Garros. Hanfmann did not take the two chances of breaking and saw the 2009 champion grow, who knew how to defend himself and counterattack, sharpening his racket until he won the first set.
most demanded
Although the result was clear for Nadal, the obligations were different. Hanfmann proposed more than Marcos Giron, the opponent of the sixth seed on debut. Trained at a Californian university, only the seventh German player in the ranking, the one from Karlsruhe has his best news on the circuit in the Bastad semifinals last year. It was sustained at the beginning of the second set, when the attacks of the Spanish intensified. Nadal had balls of break in each game until resolving in the eighth and completing the work below to obtain a two-set lead that is already presumed definitive. If there is one but that can be put against the man from Manacor, it is the discreet percentage of success in break balls: four of 16.
Hanfmann resisted until then, shaken early in the third set, although he held on until the fifth match point. After five months on the sidelines, having overcome Covid and as the only champion present in the draw, Nadal, who is looking for his twenty-first major, is where he wanted and how he wanted, physically whole, without a hint of concern about the ailment in his foot that has caused him. kept off the slopes and willing to claim his name against the push of those who see in the tournament an opportunity to continue discussing the dominance of the fractured Big Three.
“I knew him from the Roland Garros match and I knew he was dangerous. He has good shots and a great serve. He played tennis above his ranking,” Nadal said of his rival. “After the injury, I have tried to lose some weight. The games help. I needed them,” he added when asked about his good physical condition. “At times I played well, at others I should have done things better.”
Carlos Alcaraz will also be in the third round. Shortly after Nadal’s victory, his triumph against Dusan Lajovic by 6-1 6-2 and 7-5.
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