US Open champion Rafael Nadal didn't look at his
best today, but still managed to overcome Colombian Santiago Giraldo to
move into the third round here in Beijing.
World No.1 candidate Rafael Nadal
looked a bit off color at times, but managed to do just about enough to
register his place in the round of 16 here at the China Open. Nadal’s
opponent Santiago Giraldo worked hard, but just couldn’t do enough to trouble Rafa today.
The Spaniard got 5 aces, but got away with serving
at just 56 percent today. In fact, he converted only 64 percent of his
first serve points too – a display he will be disappointed with. Rafa
won the match 6-2,6-4 in an hour and a half.
Known
to be a slow starter, Rafa lived up to his reputation and couldn’t
quite find his rhythm early on. In fact, the Spaniard found it quite
hard to deal with the pace of the court and barely managed to hold on to
serve in his first two service games. However once he found his feet,
Giraldo was nowhere to be seen as Rafa went on a rampage. The Spaniard
went on to take 5 games in a row, after being down 1-2 early on, he took
the set 6-2.
In
spite of earning an early break of serve in the second set, the US Open
champion couldn’t quite shut the door on the Colombian, who worked hard
and got the break of serve back. Giraldo mustered two games in a row
and soon found himself with a 2-1 lead much like the opening set.
Nonetheless, it was here where Rafa kicked into top gear again and went
on to break serve twice, winning four straight games in the process to
take a 5-2 lead.
Given the opportunity to serve
the match out, Rafa uncharacteristically flattered to deceive to hand
the Colombian a bit of a lifeline. The break of serve, coupled with a
service hold reduced Nadal’s lead to just the one game. Undeterred by
the situation at hand though, the thirteen-time Grand Slam champion made
the most of his insurance break of serve to close the match out in
straight sets.
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