To find the last defeat of Rafael Nadal in a tournament, you have to go back to last August 5 in the round of 16 of the Washington tournament. The tennis player, limping on his left foot, would give in to Lloyd Harrys.
Since then, Nadal has only won on the professional circuit since his return to the court on January 6 with Lithuanian Ricardas Berankis.
There are already 12 consecutive victories for the champion of 21 greats, which improves on his best start to the season ever, dating back to 2014 when he saw that streak snapped in the Australian Open final against Stan Wawrinka. The match was conditioned by Nadal’s back injury.
The Manacorí, who passed over the second ‘lucky loser’ on his way to Acapulco, in this case Stefan Kozlov, 6-0 and 6-3he will have a third American on the other side of the net if he wants to reach the semi-finals of the Mexican Open.
It will be Tommy Paul, executioner of Dusan Lajovic by 7-6, 2-6 and 7-5. Paul has more ranking (39) and more boards than Kozlov, not in vain does he have a title in Stockholm.
And it is that the 130 of the circuit will never forget the first and probably last confrontation with the legend Nadal.
Historical ranking of donuts
1. Jimmy Connors (195)
2. Guillermo Vilas e Ivan Lendl (146)
3. Manuel Orantes (115)
Andre Agassi (113)
5. Rafael Nadal (112)
The Spaniard scored the first seven games and gave up the eighth with a backhand that crashed into the net. The stands celebrated. He wanted to see more tennis and had only seen the 112th donut in Rafa’s career, which leaves him with one from Andre Agassi.
Ahead of him in that particular statistic are also Jimmy Connors (195), Guillermo Vilas e Ivan Lendl (146), Manuel Orantes (115).
