Rafael Nadal appeared to be cruising in his 3rd round matchup against Denis Shapovalov but a late match collapse propeled the Canadian into the quarterfinal.
These two played a spectacular match last year in Rome and while Nadal was able to mount a comeback in that one, this time around it was Shapovalov who came back to win. Nadal was excellent in the first set taking it 6-1 as Shapovalov struggled to keep the ball in play. Things changed in the 2nd set as Shapovalov started hitting more than missing but Nadal allowed him that.
The Spaniard was spotted limping in the final set which Shapovalov won 6-2 and asked directly after the match what the issue was, Nadal said:
“I felt a lot of pain in my foot. I am not injured but it is not easy to live with this situation. It's frustrating. Tonight in the middle of the second set I started to suffer."
Despite his foot issue flaring up again, Nadal praised Shapovalov as well:
"But I have to say good from Shapovalov as well"
Asked about the foot again, Nadal was unsure about it saying:
"How will I be in a week? I don't know. Unfortunately my day-by-day is difficult, honestly… it’s difficult for me to accept the situation sometimes. Today at half the second set, it starts and then it wasn't playable for me… I don't want to take away anything from Denis… Today is for him. Well done for him."
“Since I came back, the foot has been tough. It's tough for me to be able to practise the proper way days in a row. So then you need to move well to compete at the highest level, something that I am not able to practise. The toughest thing for me today is honestly I start to feel myself play much better. I started the match playing much better. My practice was much better, the warmup, than the other day.”
Nadal's foot troubled him last clay season as well especially at the French Open where he lsot to Novak Djokovic. He will hope to avoid a similar fate this year.
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