(CNN) — Rafael Nadal overcame accidentally hitting himself in the face with his own racket to beat Fabio Fognini in the second round of the US Open.
The 36-year-old Spaniard had to come back from a slow start to beat Fognini in four sets 2-6 6-4 6-2 6-1 on Thursday night at Arthur Ashe Stadium.
But victory came with a scary moment in what was to be the final set, which left the 22-time Grand Slam champion bloodied.
As the Spaniard reached up to return a backhand to Fognini, Nadal’s racket bounced off the court and inadvertently hit him in the face.
Nadal immediately grabbed his nose, dropping his racket and missing the point. He lay down on the court next to the referee’s chair and took his hand away from his nose, showing the blood that had begun to flow.
He required a medical timeout to receive care for the injury, and later returned to close out the set. Following the win, Nadal downplayed the injury, saying he was in “a little pain, honestly, but fine.”
“(It was) just a hard hit. At first, I thought I had (broken) my nose because it was a hit at first. It was very painful,” Nadal explained.
Rafael Nadal is treated after hitting his face with his racket.
“I kind of lost the… I don’t know how to say it in English, but I kind of lost the feeling in my head. It’s about being a little out of the world. I don’t know, it seems like it’s not (broken). I’m not sure yet. I don’t know. I think it’s getting bigger and bigger,” he added.
And he joked with a smile: “No, that’s a shock in a way, I deserved to play this bad for a while!”
As well as recovering from a bloody nose, Nadal also had to fight off a rare bad start.
The Spaniard made 27 unforced errors in the first two sets, losing serve five times, four of them in a row. He called it “one of the worst starts, probably ever”.
“But that’s part of the game. You have to be humble, you have to accept the situation. It hasn’t been an easy month for me, so I know that this kind of thing can happen. It’s another opportunity for me. I’m still alive after a match like this. That means a lot.”
The victory means he will play Richard Gasquet in the third round of the US Open. Nadal has a good record against the Frenchman, as he has won all 17 of his meetings.
