Nadal is one win away from Sampras and Federer

Sebastian Korda was about to stop last Saturday the best start to the season of Rafa Nada’s careerl, but the Balearic once again did magic on the track to come back and this Monday he can equalize, if he also beats Daniel Evans (9:00 p.m., #Vamos), the most brilliant start to the year for two historic players like Pete Sampras and Roger Federerwhich opened with a 17-0 the courses of 1997 and 2018, respectively. The leader in that sense since the ATP Tour was established (1990) is Novak Djokovicauthor of the first three marks: 41-0 in 2011, 26-0 in 2020 and 17-0 in 2013.

The curious thing about this matter is that those magnificent streaks of both Sampras and Federer, and also the third best of the Serb, came to an end in Indian Wells, with the Argentine Juan Martín del Potro as a killjoy on two of those occasions, against Djokovic first and against the Swiss later. The American was stopped by the Czech Bohdan Ulihrach.

“I need to play better, because I didn’t play well against Korda. I will work to try to be ready and be better.”Nadal promised after his feat against the 21-year-old American. He had already done something similar twice in the tournament: in 2009, when he lost 6-3, 5-3, 30-40 against Nalbandian and in 2016 when he saved the furniture against Zverev, who won 7-6, 0-6. , 5-3 and 40-30. “The normal thing in this type of match is that out of 100 you lose 90. But if you give up, you lose the 100. My uncle, my family, never allowed me to break a racket, they never allowed me to say bad words or throw or give up a match “, remembered the Spaniard. Opposite this time will have a oldest Briton, 31 years old and 29th in the worldwhom he has beaten in both of his matches, at the 2019 Canadian Masters 1,000 and at the Davis Cup Finals the same year.

Indian Wells Masters 1,000 results.