Second seed Rafael Nadal overcame an early scare to down 21-year-old Australian wildcard Rinky Hijikata 4-6 6-2 6-3 6-3 in the early hours of today in his first appearance at the U.S. Open after winning in 2019.
Playing in only his second match after pulling out of Wimbledon with an abdominal injury, the Spaniard had speculated whether he was ready to take on New York and seemed to confirm those fears as he struggled on the return in the first set.
Hijikata incredibly broke the 22-times major winner with a crisp overhead shot in the seventh game of his Grand Slam debut but it was Goliath who got the momentum over David under the bright lights of Arthur Ashe Stadium, as the fighter Nadal charged through the first three games of the second set.
Nadal improved in virtually every respect as his opponent’s form deteriorated, dropping just one of his first-serve points with few mistakes, as Hijikata racked up a dozen unforced errors and dropped his serve in the final game.
Thriving on familiar territory, the four-time Flushing Meadows winner Nadal never faced a break in the third set and broke Hijikata to love in the fifth game of the final set before recovering from 0-40 in the eighth to hold his own serve.
Hijikata gave the rowdy New York crowd a final thrill as he defended four match points in the ninth before succumbing to Nadal’s vicious forehand winner.
In women’s singles, Emma Raducanu, who made a dream run to the U.S. Open title last year, suffered a nightmare 6-3 6-3 first round loss to Frenchwoman Alize Cornet.
Raducanu captivated the sporting world when she became the first qualifier to claim a Grand Slam title, winning 10 matches in New York without dropping a set, catapulting her career into the stratosphere and making her one of the most marketable athletes on the planet.
Twelve months ago Raducanu arrived at her opening match an unknown with no expectations or pressure but today the 19-year-old sometimes appeared to be carrying the weight of the world on her slender shoulders.
Not only was Raducanu defending her one and only title but a massive 2,040 of her 2,756 ranking points and with those gone the world number 11 will drop out of the top 70 and back having to qualify for some events or depend on wildcards.
Meanwhile, Iga Swiatek crushed Italy’s Jasmine Paolini 6-3 6-0 last night to set up a highly-anticipated second-round showdown with 2017 champion Sloane Stephens at the U.S. Open.
Appearing in New York for the first time as the world’s top ranked player, Swiatek looked the part, breaking Paolini’s serve seven times and reeling off the last seven games to advance.
The Polish top seed is the favourite to win the year’s final Grand Slam after she dominated the French Open in June and went on a 37-match winning streak that was snapped in the third round of Wimbledon.
But her sheen of invincibility began to crack at U.S. Open tune-up events, where she went 4-4 in her last eight matches before putting the field on notice with her complete game at Louis Armstrong Stadium.
Reuters
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