Washington, Aug 4 (EFE) .- The Spanish Rafael Nadal returned to the competition for the first time since the semifinals of Roland Garros, with his debut in the first round of the Washington Tournament, ATP 500, and he did it with suspense and a job extra three hours and four minutes before beating American Jack Sock 6-2, 4-6 and 7-6 (1).
The triumph of Nadal, the first seed, was the sixth he achieved in the same confrontations he has had with Sock, number 192 in the world, but the first since 2017.
Nadal, who started safely with his tennis from the back of the court, rest and serve, he won the first set easily as he did not have an answer from Sock.
But everything changed in the second set when Sock secured his serve and Nadal started making too many unforced errors that ultimately cost him losing it.
His luck was defined in the third round thanks to his experience and above all how well he played again in the tie-break that he dominated to ensure the victory and the pass to the second round, where he will have the Australian Lloyd as his rival. Harris, who qualified after his rival, American Tennys Sandgren, withdrew in the first round match they both played.
Harris, the fourteenth-seeded, 24-year-old, 50th in the world, who will face Nadal for the first time as a professional, was winning 6-4 1-0 when Sandgren retired injured.
If Nadal avoided the biggest surprise of the day, they could not do it the seeds, the Australian Alex de Minaur (3), the Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov (4), the English Daniel Evans (6), the Kazakh Alexander Bublik (9 ), the American Taylor Fritz (10) and the French Benoit Paire (13).
The American Steve Johnson won 6-7 (5), 6-4 and 6-2 over Minaur, the Bulgarian Ilya Ivashka defeated Dimitrow 6-2 and 7-6 (4), the young American sensation Brandon Nakashima, The 19-year-old won 7-6 (1) and 6-0 over Evans.
The Japanese Kei Nishikori beat Bublik 6-2 and 7-5, the American Denis Kudla beat his compatriot to Fritz 6-4 and 6-2.
While the also American had to work three sets in the end to win 6-7 (6), 6-4 and 6-4 against Paire.
Colombian Daniel Elahi Galán, the only Latin American player left in the competition, could not overcome the second round either, losing in two straight sets, 7-6 (1) and 6-3 against the American Reilly Opelka, eighth seeded.
(c) EFE Agency
