'Rafael Nadal will kind of build on this even though he lost it', says expert

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The last round of the round of 16 of the Cincinnati Masters 1000 was played at night and there was a major surprise. The number 2 seed, Rafael Nadal, winner this year of the Australian Open and Roland Garros, was eliminated by the Croatian tennis player Borna Coric, current number 152 in the world ranking. It must be said, however, that this is a "false" classification for Borna, who has seen his career slowed down by injuries. With today's victory, Coric has shown everyone that he is ready to re-enter "tennis that counts" and on top of that, the former world number 12 is the protagonist of a new and curious record. Coric is the second active tennis player to have a positive record against Rafael Nadal. Among former tennis players we know people like Dustin Brown or Nikolay Davydenko who are in the plus column against the Spanish champion, but Coric is the second active player who is in the plus column against Rafael Nadal after Novak Djokovic. There is little satisfaction for a tennis player who, little by little, tries to return to the circuit. Coric beat Rafa Nadal for the second time in his career in Cincinnati, the third in his career counting the 2014 win in Basel. Three wins for two for Coric in the previous round against the Iberian phenomenon. After the match, Rafa Nadal commented on his return to competition and made the following statements: "Obviously it hasn't been my best match, but I suppose it could happen since I haven't played an official match for a long time and historically it has never gone very well for me in this tournament. I can only congratulate Borna [Coric] who has played an incredible match."

Rafael Nadal is a legend

Chanda Rubin said Rafael Nadal would definitely have liked to get a few more matches under his belt in the lead-up to the US Open. "Yeah, certainly, Nadal would have wanted to get a few more matches and this was not an easy one. He's lost a charge a couple times before. So, you know, this is a match, he had to battle in, but he thought when he won that second set that he had, kind of, turned things around that," she said. "He was gonna get that extra push. He had 0-30 early in the third just was a little bit off, and that's kind of to be expected because Nadal is so underdone in matches recently and the first match on hardcourts, it takes a little getting used to. Hopefully, he'll get right back to it and will kind of build on this even though he lost it," she added.

from Tennis World USA https://ift.tt/yvAGw1o

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