On the Wednesday day of the Melbourne tournament, among the 64, the 22-time Grand Slam winning star lost to the American Mackenzie McDonald in three games. In the middle of the 2 hour and 26 minute battle, Nadal was clearly hurting his hip, so he could not hit effectively, he asked for treatment, and he played the rest of the time in pain.
I’m the defending champion, so I didn’t want to give up the match
– said the 36-year-old classic bitterly. “The philosophy of sport is to give your all until the last moment, regardless of the current odds. I’ve had minor problems with my hip so far, I’m consulting the doctors about the current situation.
I’m also disappointed that most of my career has been coming back from injuries, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t mentally broken right now.”
he added.
In his interview after the match, Nadal said: he had trouble even running after the ball, his backhands absolutely did not work.
The Spanish star did worse than this only once in the tournament in Australia, when he started it: in 2016, he said goodbye to further fights in the first round, when his compatriot, Fernando Verdasco, said goodbye to him in a five-set battle.
Sang Chun-cheng, who saw off both Fábián Marozsán and Zsombor Piros in the qualifiers – the first Chinese male player to win a match on the main draw of the Australian Open – could no longer handle the 16th seeded American Frances Tiafoe and was eliminated.
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Gallery: Defending champion Nadal was eliminated in the second round at the Australian OpenPhoto: Daniel Pockett / Getty Images Hungary
In the women’s category, Poland’s Iga Swiatek, seeded in first place, moved on without a problem against Colombia’s Camila Osorio.
Results Round 2 (to reach the 32):
men:
McDonald (American) – Nadal (Spain, 1st) 6:4, 6:4, 7:5
Auger-Aliassime (Kanadai, 6.)–Molcan (Slovak) 3:6, 3:6, 6:3, 6:2, 6:2
Sinner (Italian, 15th)–Etcheverry (Argentinian) 6:3, 6:2, 6:2
Tiafoe (American, 16th)–Sang (China) 6:4, 6:4, 6:1
Iga Swiatek (Poland, 1st)–Osorio (Colombia) 6:2, 6:3
Pegula (American, 3rd)–Szasznovich (Belarus) 6:2, 7:6 (7-5)
Sakkari (Greek, 6.)–Snajder (Russia) 3:6, 7:5, 6:3
Kalynyna (Ukrainian)–Kvitova (Czech, 15th) 7:5, 6:4
(Cover photo: Rafael Nadal on January 18, 2023. Photo: (Manan Vatsyayana/AFP)
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