Don Rafael gives another lesson

The discomfort in his left foot, which has reappeared in Indian Wells as he himself revealed after beating Opelka on Wednesday, seems the only thing that can stop a Rafa Nadal touched, but by the gods in terms of race and tennis. Imbued with that divine inspiration, gave a new lesson to Nick Kyrgiosa player who can stand up to him due to talent and has almost always done so, but who is the opposite, and never better said because he is Australian, in terms of mentality and knowing how to be on the court. The Spaniard beat him for the sixth time in nine matches (7-6 (0), 5-7 and 6-4 in 2h46) and will play the semifinals of the Californian Masters 1,000 for the 12th time on Saturday. could be, hopefully against Carlos Alcarazif the Murcian beats the defending champion, the British Cameron Norrie.

Nadal had the match uphill in the first set (break down), and he raised it with patience and class, while Kyrgios lost his mind, threw the racket twicehe did two serves from below (in the first he ate a winner) and protested the intervention of some annoying fans who sometimes spoke, the fact, between aussie serves. But the fact is that once again, his temperament deprived the 26-year-old Aussie, who was invited because he is now very poorly placed in the ranking (132nd, although he will leave the desert in 101st place).to be able to knock down the best in history at least in terms of Grand Slam titles. He seemed motivated, but his histrionics prevented him from ending Rafa’s unstoppable march in 2022, an open 19-0 that is the best start to the season of his career, third brightest since the ATP Tour began (1990) after two by Djokovic (41-0 in 2011 and 26-0 in 2020) and his seventh best winning streak, second on hard court (see tables). All this when he is close to turning 36.

“I have played well at times, but it is difficult against him, because he changes the dynamics of the point very quickly, and he serves very strongly, especially with the first ones. In the second set, when I felt like I was in control, I made a really bad game on my serve. In the third I played well again, subtracting better, trying to take a step forward, change his visual position a little, to put something different in front of him. I was also more solid with my serve. You can have problems against him if he is motivated. I am happy for the victory.” Thus, with his usual clairvoyance, Nadal summed up the match. Delight and savings for the chronicler.

Entanglement with Ben Stiller

To give a little more detail, he resolved the first round after being the first to break the Canberra’s serve in this edition of the tournament, with a donut in the tiebreaker, although the last point was in ‘own goal’, since the good of Nick was penalized by a patient Carlos Bernardes due to a violation of the code of conduct, however foul-mouthed. The second partial, soporific to tell the truth, was let out by the manacorí as he himself recognized. And the third, after having a hard time in his first turns of serve, he pointed it out for hierarchy while Kyrgios got entangled with a spectator and alluded to actor Ben Stiller, a well-known tennis lover and staunch supporter of the Spaniard, who was in the stands. “I tell him how to act,” he snapped. on the track who told him how to play was Don Rafael, from whom he still has a lot to learn. For example, about how a normal person, because when throwing the racket for the umpteenth time at the end of the game, he was about to hit a ball boy, who miraculously moved away. Someone should reprimand him.

Indian Wells Masters 1,000 results.