Last year Rafael Nadal had to retire mid-way through his quarterfinal stoush with Great Scot Andy Murray - this year the top seed was involved in another retirement, but luckily for the Spaniard it wasn’t him. It was his opponent, 32-year-old Marcos Daniel, who injured his left knee during training two days ago. A sympathetic Nadal knew just what his opponent was going through when he called time on the one-sided affair.
“The worst thing is that he had an injury. He’s for sure a really nice guy, really nice person. I [feel] really sorry for him. I wish him all the best for the recover[y]. Hopefully is nothing really, really important,” said Nadal. The No.93-ranked Brazilian tried to fight through the pain but, as he told reporters after the match, it was simply too much. “When I finished my practice, I feel the pain but not that really hard. Then at the beginning [of the match] already it was tough to move,” said Daniel.
“Against him if you are not 100 per cent focused on the match, it is impossible against those guys.” Having played Nadal twice previously and failed to win a set from the daring Spaniard, Daniel knew what he was going to be up against. Sadly his efforts today weren’t a true representation of his ability as he struggled to move around the court - a situation that allowed Nadal to hit winners almost at will. “After he saw me with the problem, he push one here another one there [and] that’s it,” said Daniel referring to Nadal moving him around the court. A tactic that Nadal openly admitted to.
“For sure I am a professional and I try my best in every point, no? That’s the best thing for respect the opponent in that situation. I think that’s the best way, no? So sometimes if you do something and you let him win a game is worst, no?” Daniel didn’t manage a single winner for the match - Nadal cracked 25 past the wounded Brazilian, whose next appointment is with an MRI scan to find out the extent of the damage to his knee. Overall, the match, for Daniel, was one he described as “embarrassing”.
“All my life I fight hard when happens this kind of problem but with this problem it’s a little bit difficult.” Despite having four chances for an unlikely break of the Nadal serve early in the second set, and with the RLA crowd behind him, Daniel just couldn’t breach Nadal’s defences completely.
For Nadal the outcome works in his favour. While he spent just 47 minutes on court - less time than the average practice session - everything seems to be in good working order.
Apart from mis-placing his first serve early in the second set for one game and landing just 54 per cent of first serves for the match, Nadal said he wasn’t sure how to rate his game, but felt his tactics were sound. “Is difficult to say something, to say I played really well, I played bad. I think I played right. I played some good shots, some long shots. The serve can be a little bit better. Yeah, that’s the only point that I think I can improve. I can improve in everything for sure.”
Following the match Nadal spent 30 minutes on the practice courts ahead of his second-round match against either Ryan Sweeting or Daniel Gimeno-Traver. The Rafa Slam remains on track.
