“Can use the time to reassess himself” Jon Wertheim suggests Rafael Nadal to come back stronger for the US Open after his early exit at Cincinnati
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Rafael Nadal and Jon Wertheim
Rafael Nadal got a shocking defeat in his second-round match against Borna Boric at the Cincinnati Open losing to the Croatian in 2 hours and 51 minutes. It was his first appearance after being out of action due to his abdominal injury incurred during his quarter-final match at the Wimbledon Championship against Taylor Fritz. His withdrawal from the semi-final against Nick Kyrgios handed the Aussie his maiden singles final appearance. This was a golden chance for the Spaniard to dethrone Daniil Medvedev from the top spot if he could have possibly won the ATP1000 Masters tournament.
The Spaniard was hopeful of a great comeback in his first hard-court event of the season before the 2022 US Open which begins on the 29th of August 2022. He has already won the 2022 Australian Open title and the 2022 French Open title. He will be looking to win his third Grand Slam title of the year at Flushing Meadows with a chance to take the lead in the number of singles Grand Slam title holders as Novak Djokovic participation at the US Open is doubtful who holds 21 Grand Slam singles title and Roger Federer is missing out of action since last year SW19 and is still at 20 Grand Slam titles.
“There seemed to be a lack of confidence”Jon Wertheim on Rafael Nadal second round exit at Cincinnati Open
Jon Wertheim, a sports journalist, highlighted the fact that Nadal‘s performance at Cincinnati was under par as he lacked confidence in his game and did not seem to be hindered by his abdominal injury in any way. He revealed that the Spaniard should use his time to reassess himself to come back stronger . He said “What happened? There seems to be a lack of confidence. We were all looking at the service and would be impacted by this abdominal injury. That did not seem to be the case today, it really was just playing some tight big points. Yeah, he can use the time off to sort of reassess.“
He further counted that he will be the favorite going into the US Open with Djokovic‘s absence in New York due to his ‘unvaccinated‘ status but he needs to play the best level of tennis to win the title. He added that “He’s going to New York, the player who ostensibly will be the number one seed. Djokovic would be the favorite, but Djokovic as of now is not in the draw and so Nadal has to be considered a favorite. This is not the tune-up that he needed, but I do think an extra week off and sort of the best-of-five format, I think will help him, but this was not one of his prime performances tonight“
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Prateek Pradhan
(601 Articles Published)