Rafael Nadal will perhaps never play a professional match in Spain again, but if the last one was that of Tuesday evening, in Madrid, lost in the round of 16 against the Czech Jiri Lehecka, 31st player in the world (7-5, 6- 4), nothing says that it will not have been of great help to him in his process of upgrading in view of Roland-Garros and the Paris Olympics.
The day after the 3h04 he needed to get rid of the Argentinian Pedro Cachin after a match of average quality, the first question concerned the almost 38-year-old Spaniard’s ability to recover. But when he entered the Central de la Caja Magica, shortly before 10 p.m., while his Real Madrid were leading 1-0 at half-time of the Champions League semi-final in Munich, even if his expression seemed tense , Nadal quickly showed that he was not rusty.
Two points from the first set
It was even he who, behind a first service ball that was still a little improved compared to the days before, seemed the strongest during the first three quarters of an hour of play. With, among other things, more runs invested, good returns with rounded backhands and some good long-line forehands. If Lehecka never reached 40 on a return game up to 5-5, Nadal created two good chances. First at 4-3 for him, when a double fault from the Czech gave him a break point. Lehecka brushed him aside with a confident, uncrossed forehand winner. Then at 5-4, when he came back from 40-0 at 40A to find himself two points from the set.
Except that Lehecka then went “in the zone” and suddenly won the last ten points of the set. Of course, Nadal made two blunders (one on the backhand and one on the volley) in the eleventh game, which cost him the break, but the Czech also scored some magnificent points, based on subtle volleys or shattering serves. After 57 minutes, Nadal was down a set to nothing and, at that moment, had no use for the 2-2 brought back from Bavaria by Real.
Intensity until the end
Remaining on his momentum, brilliantly developing his very own technique, Lehecka broke at the start of the second round. The level of the match then climbed a few levels, Nadal holding on to save three balls from a 3-0 double break and return to 2-1 after a game of fourteen minutes! The rest remained very good in terms of intensity but the Spaniard was never able to pose a serious threat to the opposing team.
Not tense for a penny, despite the clamors, Lehecka calmly carried out the “Farewell Madrid” operation to its conclusion, without ever losing precision or authority, generally presenting a level of play which could make him a scarecrow in the coming weeks . Shortly after midnight, Rafael Nadal’s career was over in his capital.
Still Rome to progress
There is still one tournament left in Majorcan, the Masters 1000 in Rome (May 6-19), to continue to raise the level of play and confidence in order to approach Roland-Garros (May 26 – June 9) in a position of miracle hunter who would please him very much. The road is both short and long, but the Madrid lessons of the last days undoubtedly already go beyond what he hoped for when he arrived.
As for Lehecka, an off day awaits him on Wednesday, before launching an attack on Daniil Medvedev on Thursday to try to reach his first semi-final in a Masters 1000.
