By Richard Pagliaro | Wednesday, April 24, 2019
Rafael Nadal dropped his first set in Barcelona in four years, but bounced back to tame Leonardo Mayer, 6-7 (7), 6-4, 6-2, setting up a rematch with buddy David Ferrer.
Photo credit: Clive Brunskill/Getty Images/Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters
On a breezy Barcelona afternoon, Rafael Nadal launched his search mission overshadowed on his own court.
Leonardo Mayer saved three set points snapping the top seed's streak of 30 straight sets in Barcelona in today's opener as a twitchy Nadal left his backhand short in the court while occasionally muttering misgivings of frustrations to himself.
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Digging out of the deficit, Nadal hit back with depth and rebranded resilience denying Mayer, 6-7 (7), 6-4, 6-2, in a tough two hour, 50-minute triumph.
Nadal improved to 59-3 lifetime in Barcelona working through some patches of tentative play in the opening set before finding his range and aggression in the final set.
The 11-time champion advanced to a round of 16 meeting with good buddy David Ferrer, who is wrapping up his spirited farewell tour with an energized flair. Nadal has won 25 of 31 meetings with his former Davis Cup teammate, including prevailing in all four of their encounters in Barcelona finals.
In his last appearance at the Real Club de Tenis Barcelona, the 37-year-old Ferrer defied the wildly unpredictable wind and a sputtering Lucas Pouille, 6-3, 6-1.
The Spanish wild card knocked off third-ranked Alexander Zverev in Miami last month—then wrote a thank-you note to tournament director James Blake for the wild card. Ferrer showed plenty of life in his legs and stinging bite in his forehand sending the 15th-seeded Frenchman to his sixth straight loss since his run to the Australian Open semifinals in January.
Nadal's streak of 18 straight wins and 25 consecutive sets was broken by creative Italian Fabio Fognini in the Monte Carlo semifinals on Saturday.
Before launching his Barcelona title defense, Nadal outlined his search mission for himself and stability.
"Now the job is to find myself," Nadal told the media in Barcelona ahead of his title defense. "During these last 18 months I have had too many stops, too many ups and downs.
"Last year finishing seven tournaments I finished No 2 in the world and this year unfortunately I've had more problems than I would have liked. There comes a time when when you have a lot of problems, one after the other, it is difficult to pick up rhythm and have continuity."
Both elements proved elusive for the first half of this match, but Nadal kept plugging away to find his way through it.
Wearing no taping around his cranky knees, Nadal was spinning the ball short at times, but kept control of service games. The defending champion zapped an ace out wide holding for 2-1.
Despite struggling to land his first serve at the outset, Mayer was jumping on Nadal's shorter returners streaming through early service games.
The only challenge tougher than beating Nadal on clay is beating the king of clay on dirt after a clay-court loss. Yet, the lanky Argentine permitted just three points in his first three service games.
Patches of sweat streaked Nadal's blue shirt as he began landing longer returns in the eighth game. Backing Mayer up with the depth of his returns, Nadal rolled through a love break for 5-3.
Just when it seemed the top seed was about to drop the hammer, Nadal miss-hit a backhand to open a jittery three-error game that ended with him ballooning a forehand beyond the baseline to gift back the break.
Puzzling misses on rally balls were signs Nadal was still searching for sharpness.
Earning set point in the 10th game, Nadal netted a routine forehand then followed with successive backhand errors as Mayer leveled.
A tight tie breaker swung back and forth. On his second set point at 6-5, Nadal ended an 11-shot rally sending a backhand beyond the baseline.
Staring down a third set point at 6-7, Mayer showed guts snapping off a clean one-handed backhand winner. That show infused the 31-year-old Argentine with confidence as he cracked a forehand snatching away a set that seemed so firmly in the Spaniard's grip snapping Nadal's streak of 30 straight sets in Barcelona.
The one hour, 11-minute opener marked the first time Nadal dropped a set in Barcelona since Fabio Fognini scored a 6-4, 7-6 (6) victory in the 2015 round of 16.
The pro-Nadal crowd sat in stunned silence.
The 32-year-old Spaniard broke to start the second set and held a break point for a 3-0 second-set lead but could not convert as Mayer held firm.
Playing shots with more purposed and taking the short preparation steps to keep proper space between his body and the ball, Nadal played with greater attention to detail in the second set.
Down 15-30 in the eighth game, Nadal snaked a drop-shot winner only to see Mayer rap a diagonal forehand winner for break point. Nadal saved it and worked his way through a challenging game for 5-3 before closing out the set to force a decider.
Fortune favored Nadal when a net-cord drive skimmed the tape and plopped over then Mayer, from nearly on top of the net, bricked a backhand volley. Bending low, Nadal blasted a backhand crosscourt for break point.
Scrambling on defense, Nadal bolted a big backhand pass down the line posting the first break of the final set for 3-2.
The aggression Mayer displayed throughout much of the first two sets dissipated as he double-faulted to face double-break point in the seventh game. Stepping up, Nadal slashed a forehand strike for his fourth break of the day and a 5-2 lead.
Leaning into his two-hander Nadal lashed a backhand winner to close on his namesake court in two hours, 50 minutes.
Guido Pella, who tested Nadal in Monte Carlo last week, continued his recent run of good form toppling sixth-seeded Karen Khachanov, 6-2, 7-6 (4). Paris Masters champion Khachanov dropped to 7-9 on the season.
The Sao Paulo champion will play either Benoit Paire or 12th-seeded Spaniard Pablo Carreno Busta next.