Nadal passes to semifinals due to resignation of Griekspoor

Rafa Nadal will play the semifinals of the 250 in Melbourne without having to play in the quarterfinals against Tallon Griekspoor, as the 25-year-old Dutchman, 65th in the world, resigned due to injury. The Balearic, who perhaps would have been better off continuing with his filming process with one more game, will face Emil Ruusuvuori this Saturday, who passed over the Slovak Alex Molcan (6-2 and 6-1 in 67 minutes).

Griekspoor, who had qualified for the penultimate round of an ATP tournament for the first time in his career, paid for the effort it took him to get it on Thursday against Australian Alexei Popyrin, before whom he won in a match that lasted almost two hours.

Nadal trained around 5:00 p.m. local time with Carlos Moyá so as not to lose the rhythm that he had resumed. in his victory against the Lithuanian Ricardas Berankis. This is how he will prepare his first match against Ruusuvuori, a 22-year-old Finn and 95th in the ranking, a right-hander who in 2021 reached the semifinals in Atlanta and Winston-Salem. Rafa had not reached a semi-finals on Aussie soil since he played and lost the Australian Open final against Djokovic in 2019.

Munar can’t with Cressy

Juame Munar, who had won two creditable triumphs at the Melbourne 250 against Kevin Anderson and Henri Laaksonen, said goodbye in the quarterfinals after losing 7-6 (3) and 6-4 to the American of the previous qualifier Maxime Cressy (24 years old and 114th in the world), a very dangerous tennis player due to his size (1.98) and the powerful serve he displays. The dynamics of the match, which suffered two stoppages, one long due to the rain and another shorter due to a failure in the electronic refereeing system, did not favor the Majorcan, who used The same tactic that had worked so well for him against Anderson, subtracting very close to the line, but this time Cressy responded very well both in the background and at the net.

In the last US Open, he eliminated Pablo Carreño in the first round with 44 aces. This time he made 11 for a total of 42 winners in two sets., a production that made the task of Munar very complicated, who was playing his second quarterfinal in an ATP tournament on hard court (he already did it in Pune 2019). The American did not accuse the wear of a tough encounter against his compatriot Reilly Opelka, in which he had to lift two match points in the third quarter tiebreaker. They will face Dimitrov or Van de Zandschulp in the semifinals.

Melbourne ATP 250 results.