Steadfast Nadal overcomes surprise test from wild card Hijikata

New York

Second seed Rafael Nadal faced a surprise test in his first US Open appearance since winning the 2019 title, as he overcame 21-year-old Australian wild card Rinky Hijikata 4-6 6-2 6-3 6-3 on Tuesday in the opening round.

Playing in his second match after pulling out of Wimbledon with an abdominal injury, the Spaniard was wondering if he was ready to take on New York and seemed to confirm this fear as he struggled on the return in the first set.

Hijikata incredibly broke the 22-time Major winner with a crisp overhead shot in the seventh game of his Grand Slam debut, bringing the crowd to a roar.

“I started not that bad the first couple of games, but then I had some opportunities that I was not able to make,” Nadal, 36, said. “I didn’t play a good game with my serve. Then he had the break. Then I was a little nervous.”

But it was Goliath who got the momentum over David under the bright lights of Arthur Ashe Stadium, as a steadfast Nadal charged through the first three games of the second set, improving in virtually all respects as his opponent’s form deteriorated.

He dropped just one of his first-serve points with few mistakes, as Hijikata racked up a dozen unforced errors and dropped his serve in the final game of the frame.

Thriving on familiar territory, the four-time Flushing Meadows winner Nadal never faced a break in the third set and broke Hijikata to love in the fifth game of the final set before recovering from 0-40 in the eighth to hold his own serve.

Hijikata gave the rowdy New York crowd a final thrill as he defended four match points in the ninth before succumbing to Nadal’s vicious forehand winner, only weeks after recording his maiden Tour-level win in Los Cabos.

“First match here in New York after three years, night session, it's always exciting. Yeah, I went through this tough moment,” said Nadal, who sent across nine aces in the match.

“Second match in 50 days more or less. In some way was not the day to play perfect. Is a day to just make the job done, and that's what I did.”

The win extends Nadal’s unbeaten streak in Grand Slam competition this year, after he won the Australian Open and Roland-Garros, with the world No 1 ranking on the line in New York in a depleted men's draw.

The evening was a clear boost of confidence, after a demoralising defeat in his first match back from injury in Cincinnati.

“You need to be humble enough to go through this process and accept that you need to fight and you need to accept that you going to suffer,” he said. “That’s what I did today.”

Emma Raducanu, who made a dream run to the US Open title last year, suffered a nightmare 6-3 6-3 first-round loss to Frenchwoman Alize Cornet as the clock finally struck midnight on an improbable tennis fairy-tale.

Raducanu captivated the sporting world when she became the first qualifier to claim a Grand Slam title, winning 10 matches in New York without dropping a set, catapulting her career into the stratosphere and making her one of the most marketable athletes on the planet.

Twelve months ago Raducanu arrived at her opening match an unknown with no expectations or pressure but on Tuesday the 19-year-old sometimes appeared to be carrying the weight of the world on her slender shoulders.

Not only was Raducanu defending her only title but a huge 2,040 of her 2,756 ranking points and with those gone the world No 11 will drop out of the top 70 and back having to qualify for some events or depend on wild cards.

But the loss, said Raducanu, also brought freedom and a clean slate that will enable her to reconstruct her game and career without unrealistic expectations.

“Obviously really disappointing, really sad to leave here,” Raducanu said, her face partially hidden by a baseball cap pulled tight to her eyes. “But also, in a way happy because it's a clean slate. I'm going to drop down the rankings. Climb my way back up.” 

Reuters