Rafael Nadal had one of those days when his opponent played the match of his life, but despite the best efforts of Ricardas Berankis, it was the 22-time Grand Slam winner who was in the third round at 6-4, 6 -4, 4-6, 6-3 win over world no.106 from Lithuania, on center court.
Nadal, who says he is living the life of a hermit in SW19 thanks to the Covid outbreak taking a third player out of the men’s draw, will now face Italy’s Lorenzo Sonego on Saturday.
“It wasn’t the best start, but it was probably the best finish,” Nadal said. “I have room to get better. A few weeks ago I was close to retirement, but now I don’t feel that way.” Speaking about Covid, he said he was taking extra precautions because: “This is the reality. I’m staying at home and won’t go out anymore. At some point you have to open up, but then there are more cases, it’s part of the challenging world we’re in.”
A rain delay meant it took Nadal the best part of four hours to see Berankis’ energetic and fearless performance. The story of the contest was defined in the first set, where Nadal clearly dominated but could not find a consistent level of dominance, while Berankis was able to summon enough moments of quality to hang on in the match. It made for a gripping contest and it wasn’t until his fifth service game that his 5ft 9in opponent showed weakness, a horrendous double fault to give up a break point which Nadal ate to take the set 6-4.
Berankis immediately took a game from Nadal at the start of the second and while Nadal quickly fought back, Berankis prevented further losses again until the fifth service game and the score at deuce when Nadal’s power got the better of him.
Rafael Nadal slips on center court. Photo: Tom Jenkins / Guardian
The third set saw Berankis create memories he would experience late in his career, the 32-year-old breaking early again and this time not only holding off but beating Nadal in some of the smoothest tennis of the match. His forehand was sizzling, his serve was reliable and he won dramatic points in the fourth set as well, including the last before it rained out. But Berankis was down 3-0 at that point and there was no way the French Open champion was going to relinquish such an advantage. Nadal returned to the court, kicked the dust and methodically worked his way to victory.
Earlier in the day, Stefanos Tsitsipas set up a tough third-round meeting with Nick Kyrgios after seeing off the challenge of Jordan Thompson in straight sets 6-2, 6-3, 7-5.
The mustachioed Thompson was a willing opponent whose quick defense meant the contest was not much of a draw, but in the end the speed of Tsitsipas’ serve and the aggression of his returns proved too much for the Australian.
The No. 4 seed has only reached the fourth round at Wimbledon once and needs to beat a fired-up Kyrgios to do so again, but on the back of his maiden grass-court title in Mallorca last week, the Greek is feeling good.
“I felt really good from the start,” he said. “I felt confident with something I wasn’t so confident about [about] in my first round match which was… to have that first [return] which puts my opponent out of position. This worked a lot today, giving me plenty of chances to consistently break or come close to breaking. It’s something that works great.”
Add Comment