RAFAEL NADAL RETURNS TO MADRID OPEN WITH DOMINANT FIRST-ROUND WIN VS DARWIN BLANCH

Rafael Nadal did not put a foot wrong as he returned to the Madrid Open on a winning note on Thursday, April 25. The 5-time champion made light work of a challenge from World No. 1028 Darwin Blanch of the USA in straight sets. Nadal was ruthless against his 16-year-old opponent as he clinched a 6-1, 6-0 victory on the clay court in the Spanish capital. 

It was Rafael Nadal's 4th win of the 2024 season as he has struggled to cope with a muscle injury that ruled him out of the Australian Open and the hard-court swing in the United States. Nadal missed Monte Carlo Masters, but returned to the Barcelona Open to begin his clay-court swing and was handed a second-round exit as he did not look 100 percent in the ATP 500 tournament.

Rafael Nadal had hoped to remain competitive and bid farewell to one of his favourite clay-court tournaments. The 37-year-old came up with a pessimistic address to the press on the eve of his first-round match, saying he was not at his best physically and that he might not play Roland Garros if the situation doesn't improve. 

However, Nadal looked in no discomfort on the clay court of Madrid on Thursday and moved well in his straight-set decimation of the 16-year-old opponent. Nadal won 79 percent points on his first serve and 73 on his second serve and had as many as 9 break points as Darwin's inexperience showed in the biggest match of his career. 

While Nadal was pumped up after the victory on Thursday, it's only going to get tougher from here for the 22-time Grand Slam champion. Nadal will next face 10th seed Alex de Minaur, who received a first-round bye. Notably, De Minaur had beaten Nadal in Barcelona before he lost to Arthur Fills in the 3rd round earlier in the month.

2024-04-25T17:31:49Z dg43tfdfdgfd