Rafael Nadal’s Emphatic 1st-Round Win at 2013 US Open Makes Him Clear Favorite

By
at Internationaled.org

Published: August 27, 2013

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Could Rafael Nadal have looked any better in his opening match of the 2013 US Open? In a word, no.

Well, to be fair, he could have mirrored Dave Chappelle's And-1 mixtape and jumped the net to hit a shot from his opponent's side of the court.

In all probability, Ryan Harrison would have been less upset about that than he was when Nadal chased down an overhead from Harrison to hit a forehand winner.



The 12-time Grand Slam champion looked downright dominant in his win over the American, winning in straight sets, 6-4, 6-2, 6-2. Even in the first round of the men's singles draw, you don't often see matches as one-sided as this one was.

Although Novak Djokovic is the top seed and made the final of last year's US Open, it's hard not to consider Nadal the man to beat.

Following an opening-round exit to Steve Darcis at Wimbledon, it was speculated that Nadal's knee problems were rearing their ugly head again. Instead, the Spanish star just labeled it just a bad day at the office.



Without his physical superiority over an opponent, Nadal is not the same player. He's still one of the best, but he'd be without one of his biggest weapons.

His win over Harrison illustrated that he's not having any problems with his knees and can still run around the court as much as possible.

Of course, if Harrison hits that overhead to the left, Nadal is dead. However, Nadal guessed right and then had enough speed and lateral quickness to hit a shot that would break Harrison's spirit completely.

There aren't too many players who have the ability to get to a shot like that, let alone get there fast enough to set up for a forehand winner.

After that Wimbledon loss, Nadal took a bit of a break. He didn't play competitively for about a month and a half and returned at the Rogers Cup. He managed to win that and followed up with a win at the Western and Sout...
Article Source: Bleacher Report - Tennis

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