Rafael Nadal kicks-off 2022 Rome campaign with a dominant victory over John Isner
ATP
Rafael Nadal successfully eliminated John Isner's biggest weapon to easily advance to the third round of the 2022 Italian Open in Rome.
Nadal and Isner met for the eighth time on the ATP courts, and the tall American had never won a match against the Spanish King of the Clay. However, Isner once defeated Nadal in an exhibition event - the 2017 Laver Cup.
At the 2022 Italian Open, the story was similar to the previous 7 meetings on the ATP Tour. After not playing since the 2022 Indian Wells and then losing in the quarterfinal of the 2022 Madrid Open, the experienced Spaniard is looking to get a strong result in the Italian capital.
He is preparing to fight for his 22nd Grand Slam title at the 2022 Roland Garros, where alongside Novak Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz, he will be the biggest favourite to lift the trophy.
As expected, both players started by holding their service games without facing a break point until the seventh game. Surprisingly, it was the Spaniard who faced the first breakpoint as Isner had two chances to break Nadal in the seventh game of the first set.
However, the Spaniard resisted and went on to win 11 out of the last 13 points in the first set to claim a 6-3 victory. In the second set, the Spaniard started with a break and got a swift 2-0 lead early in the second set.
Moreover, he was very successful in eliminating Isner's biggest weapon - his serve. During the whole first serve, the American hit only 1 ace and won only 50% of the points after the first serve.
Nadal's performance was improving throughout the match as he managed to get another breakpoint in the fifth game of the second set to seal his lead with a two-break advantage.
He then added another break and easily walked towards a 6-3, 6-1 victory to set up a third-round clash with the thirteenth-seeded Denis Shapovalov.
Latest Comments
- Kyrgios will do anything to stay in the news.shirley19-12-2024
- A technical error.
MrMustard18-12-2024 - All that is said , all that is done. Nick has 0 grand slams wins. Everything else is hot 🥵 air.MrMustard18-12-2024
- All that is said , all that isMrMustard18-12-2024
- Kyrgios is a jerk.shirley17-12-2024
- If Jessica Pegula had to undergo such horror for using a bannes substance, so do these two tennis players. Penalty should apply to all players regardless of their excuses. They are professionals and know better!!
Stella112-12-2024 - All players should be treated the same for taking banned substances, if your no 1 in the world or no 300 man or woman you should not be allowed to keep playing,,VPH108-12-2024
- Ah, censored again. No one gets to read my comment. LOLjjluvsports08-12-2024
- Reynolds, could you list all the wars started by the U.S. and U.K., or will you run out of paper? Hypocrisy.jjluvsports06-12-2024
- IDK, it looks like to me that Raducanu should praise herself and her team for 'gaming the system' as in playing the points and ranking game. When you look at her season of wild cards, skipping tournaments (including the Paris Olympics!), retiring from losing matches and avoiding qualifying rounds, it seems like there was some plan to move up the ranks without actually playing a lot of tennis. And it worked! Congrats!RealityCheckers04-12-2024