Rafa Nadal again justified in Washington the price of the Citi Open tickets, between 32 and 303 dollars (27 and 256 euros), although the public of the American capital, who exhausted them, will not see the Spanish again this year, because could not complete the comeback against Lloyd Harris (24 years and 50th in the world). A rival who made it very difficult, among other things, for his powerful serve. The Spanish had to resort to the extraordinary ability he has to read the matches that are put uphill, but it was insufficient to win a victory that corresponded to the South African by 4-6, 6-1 and 7-5 at 2:10.
Another physical beating, like the one that lasted three hours in the tournament premiere against Sock, which this time did not help Rafa to advance to the quarterfinals, despite playing with better feelings and, apparently, less discomfort on your sore foot. Harris, who is the first tennis player since Denis Shapovalov at the 2017 Canadian 1,000 Masters to beat the Balearic in their first meeting, It will be measured this Friday (not before 1:00, #Come on) with the Japanese Kei Nishikori, who beat the British Cameron Norrie (3-6, 6-3 and 6-3) in three sets.
The first set was lost by Nadal due to a bad game, 3-4, by conceding a break against a Harris who had only allowed the rest to win two points. Then he decided to go far back to try to respond to the services of his opponent, who began to notice the pressure of the world number three, but He managed to get the sleeve through with a couple of very worthwhile blows.
Insufficient reaction
Rafa had to react and do it as quickly as possible. He fulfilled both objectives, he came up with a fantastic drive intern that gave him the first advantage. He later sentenced against a Harris who saw the set lost with two breaks against and let himself go while waiting for his opportunity in the third set. He had the strength and enthusiasm left to resist and he managed it despite the fact that Nadal had three break points before getting involved in a bad way in the last game of the match, with a relatively simple blow that touched the net and allowed Lloyd to place a perfect balloon with Manacor's mid-rise.
Thus ended the first participation in the tournament of the winner of 20 Grand Slams, who after this premature fall he will be able to regain strength and play, if he sees fit, in Toronto next week and maybe the following week in Cincinnati before facing the US Open from August 30.
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