Rafael Nadal (credit: DON EMMERT/AFP/Getty Images)
Rafa Nadal vs. Diego Schwartzman takes place today in the second round of the 2015 US Open.
This US Open match is scheduled to start at 20:00 BST.
Preview:
Rafael Nadal made a winning return to the US Open after missing last year’s tournament, where he would have been defending his 2013 title, due to injury. He faces Diego Sebastian Schwartzman next.
Nadal, who is seeded a comparatively lowly seventh at the final Grand Slam of the year and is on a collision course with top seed Novak Djokovic in the quarterfinals, made an unusual decision to return to clay after losing in the second round of Wimbledon in a bid to gain confidence. It paid off, in the sense that Nadal did win his biggest title of the year yet at the 500-level bet-at-home Open in Hamburg, but if it boosted his confidence significantly that wasn’t apparent during the US Open Series. Nadal went 2-3 through Montreal and Cincinnati, losing to Kei Nishikori and Feliciano Lopez respectively after looking comfortable against lesser opposition.
That’s been the story of 2015 for Nadal really, so perhaps we shouldn’t read too much over his first-round win over Borna Coric, although the Croatian teenager was one of the trickier opponents Nadal could have faced in the first round and he sounded extremely satisfied with his 6-3, 6-2, 4-6, 6-4 win.
‘I think I played great. The first two sets I played a very high level of tennis,’ Nadal said. ‘Seriously, then I get a little bit tired … But then in the fourth I recovered little bit. I played again more aggressive.’
Next up for Nadal is the diminutive, tenacious Diego Schwartzman, currently ranked world no. 74, who defeated world no. 143 Elias Ymer 6-3, 6-2, 6-2 to reach the second round at the US Open for the first time in his career after losing in straight sets to Djokovic in his main-draw debut 12 months ago.
Schwartzman was ranked as high as world no. 57 in May of this year after a fine performance on the clay courts of Istanbul, where he reached the semifinals of the inaugural event with wins over Jurgen Melzer and Santiago Giraldo and actually took a set from Roger Federer before succumbing in three.
That was clay, however, a much better surface for Schwartzman – six of his ten ATP World Tour-level wins in 2015 have come on clay, and he also pushed Gael Monfils to five sets in the second round of the French Open. Clay favours the long baseline rallies he needs, with his lack of overwhelming weapons, to play his best and on hard courts, his relatively weak serve does leave him exposed. He’s not going to beat Nadal by out-defending him, and that’s basically how Schwartzman wins matches.
The Argentine lost 2-6, 2-6 to Nadal in their only previous meeting, in Acapulco in 2013, and if this US Open meeting lasts longer, it will only be because it’s the best of five sets. Expect Nadal to progress in routine style.
