The Balearic Islander starts ‘its’ tournament on the right foot in search of the thirteenth title
BARCELONA, 16 Abr. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Spanish tennis player Rafa Nadal beat the Italian Flavio Cobolli this Tuesday (2-6 and 3-6) in his debut at the Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell-71st Conde de Godó Trophy, in a First Round that allowed him to gain confidence and gain sensations Looking ahead to the remainder of the day, with victories also for Jaume Munar and Roberto Carballés and the surprise, completely unexpected, of seeing the number 2 of the tournament, Andrey Rublev, fall.
Rafa Nadal is looking for his thirteenth (and last?) Conde de Godó in this 71st edition of the Catalan tournament, which is organized by his club and whose center court bears his name. It may be Manacor’s last year active and, for now, he has been able to debut, play and beat a Cobolli that barely resisted him.
It wasn’t Nadal’s most brilliant match in Barcelona, but it didn’t need to be. The important thing for the Manacorí was to have a good feeling, not to resent his injury and discomfort and to be able to continue with his evolution in Barcelona. And there were good points, good moments of tennis, against a Cobolli against whom he had never played.
The Italian, currently number 62 in the world, knew that he could hardly trust the Spaniard despite the fact that the ATP says that his ranking is 644 in the world. The twelve-time winner of the Godó, the ‘King’ of the Barcelona Open, did not want to go home at the first opportunity and in just 1:25 hours of play he won.
He did it with his serve, with 5-3 in his favor in the second set, in which the Italian did find a better game to try to put Nadal in trouble. But the winner of 22 Grand Slams, at 40-15, served to win. And he did it, putting an end to a good first contact with the first tournament he has played since he had to withdraw from Brisbane in January after losing the quarterfinal match.
If there are no changes, on Wednesday Rafa Nadal will play on the Rafa Nadal Court starting at 4:00 p.m. against the Australian Alex de Miñaur, fourth seed in the tournament, in a more demanding duel in which the Spaniard will have to put one more gear. At the moment, the balance between the two is 3-1 in favor of Manacor.
2024-04-16 16:31:46
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