Today I witnessed the worst performance from Rafael Nadal I have ever seen. He still won though. Huh.
In the second round of the BNP Paribas 1000 Masters in Paris he went head to head with fellow Spaniard Nicolas Almagro. In their lifetime series Rafa was up 4:0, this being their 5th match.
Almagro started great and won the first set 6:3 after taking a serve from Rafa. In the second it was more of a tie and then suddenly Rafa made too many mistakes at 5:5 and lost his serve. Almagro was up 6:5, serving for the match. With three consecutive points he was up 40:0 with 3 MATCH POINTS. Nadal managed to save all three and then another two, bringing to total 5 saved match points. Rafa eventually tied the score 6:6 and won the tie break, taking the match into the 3rd set.
In the first game he broke Almagro's serve and I thought everything will be normal now. Yeah right. Almagro broke Rafa's serve twice taking the lead 3:1. Another tie followed at 3:3 and then another two consecutive games for Almagro for 5:3, one game from the win and he was on the serve again.
Rafa broke his serve again and tied the score 5:5 with his serve.
Perhaps not the main reason but a big reason for sure was Almagro's pain in his thigh and by the end of the match he pretty much couldn't run at all. Rafa won 7:5, after 4 consecutive games. If there wasn't for an injury Almagro could have maybe kicked out the 2nd seeded player in his first match of this tournament. Fuck that shit.
Rafa get better soon.
