Rafael Nadal, who returns this week a month and a half after a stress fracture in a rib, suffered more than three hours and dismissed four match points on Thursday to qualify for the quarter-finals of the Masters 1000 in Madrid, where he will find the phenomenon Carlos Alcaraz, winner in the evening forceps of the Briton Cameron Norrie (6-4, 6-7, 6-3).
Under the rediscovered Madrid sun, Nadal had to grit his teeth to overcome 6-3, 5-7, 7-6 (11/9) the Belgian David Goffin, ex-N.7 in the world today 60th after a long left knee injury.
The 35-year-old Spaniard initially seemed to be heading for a relatively quiet straight-sets victory, until getting two first match points, the first at 5-3 on Goffin’s serve, the second at 5-4 on his own commitment.
But he didn’t convert either and instead let four games in a row slip away to find himself in a third set – and an extended game.
Nadal had to draw on his resources
No doubt physically damaged after his six weeks without competition, including a full month without training, Nadal was less bleeding and less mobile in this second part of the match.
His shots, still definitive a little earlier, weren’t anymore, his ball hurt less, he stood farther from his line and made more mistakes: all this allowed Goffin to develop his game, which the Belgian had the great merit of doing with the way.
In turn, Goffin got two first chances to conclude, 6 points to 4 in the deciding game, then a third at 7-6, and a fourth at 9-8. But if Nadal folded, he never broke and it was he who ended up winning, on his fourth match point, 11 points to 9.
The day before, barely three weeks from Roland-Garros (May 22-June 5), the Mallorcan had launched his season on clay late but convincingly, his beloved surface, against the Serbian Miomir Kecmanovic (32nd), one of the in-form players from the first part of the 2022 season, beaten 6-1, 7-6 (7/4).
Djoko in quarters without playing
There was no 37th duel between Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray in Madrid: sick, the Briton, ex-world No.1 today 78th, forfeited before their round of 16 scheduled for midday.
“Unfortunately, Andy Murray, ill, is not able” to play, write the organizers of the ATP Masters 1000 tournament.
The Scot, a titanium hip since 2019 and the beneficiary of an invitation to the Madrid tournament, had just won his first two matches on clay in five years (Roland-Garros 2017), against another comeback, Dominic Thiem, then against Denis Shapovalov (16th), to climb into the round of 16.
In the quarter-finals, Djokovic will face the Pole Hubert Hurkacz (14th).