Rafael Nadal will continue his Australian Open campaign on Thursday against the always entertaining Marcos Baghdatis. David Goffin and Radek Stepanek are also part of the second-round schedule.
Marcos Baghdatis vs. (9) Rafael Nadal
Nadal and Baghdatis will be facing each other for the 10th time in their careers when they clash in round two of the Australian Open on Thursday. The head-to-head series is being dominated 8-1 by Nadal, who is 4-1 against Baghdatis on hard courts and 1-0 at Grand Slams (6-1, 7-5, 6-3 in the 2006 Wimbledon semifinals). They most recently squared off two seasons ago on the grass courts of Stuttgart, where Nadal got the job done 7-6(5), 6-7(4), 6-2.
The ninth-ranked Spaniard has been in relatively encouraging form since returning from a wrist injury that sidelined him from the fall swing in 2016. He won the six-man Abu Dhabi event before officially beginning the 2017 season in Brisbane, where he lost a three-setter to Milos Raonic in the quarterfinals. Nadal opened on Tuesday in Melbourne with a 6-3, 6-4, 6-4 victory over Florian Mayer. Baghdatis had an even easier time of things in an all-veteran affair of his own, as he led Mikhail Youzhny 6-3, 3-0 before getting a retirement. The 36th-ranked Cypriot did well to regain momentum with a semifinal performance in Auckland after retiring from his opening match of the season in Chennai. A best-of-five match against Nadal, however, will likely be too tough physically on Baghdatis.
Pick: Nadal 3 losing 8-10 games
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Radek Stepanek vs. (11) David Goffin
Stepanek may be 38 years old and outside the top 100, but he cannot be discounted from being a threat to just about anyone on tour on any given day. It has already been a productive Australian Open for the Czech, who qualified for the main draw and then cruised past fellow veteran Dmitry Tursunov 6-2, 7-6(1), 6-3 on Tuesday. Stepanek lost in the first round of both the French Open and Wimbledon last in 2016 but pushed Andy Murray and Nick Kyrgios to five sets and four sets, respectively.
Up next for the world No. 102 on Thursday is a second career meeting with Goffin, who won their only previous encounter 6-2, 4-6, 2-6, 6-4, 6-2 at Roland Garros in 2012. Speaking of five-setters, the 11th-ranked Belgian surprisingly had to go the distance with American qualifier Reilly Opelka in round one. Although the 6’11” underdog had chances to go up by a break in the deciding set, Goffin’s experience helped him survive 6-4, 4-6, 6-2, 4-6, 6-4. Opelka basically took the racket out of Goffin’s hands, but this should be a much better matchup for the No. 11 seed. Stepanek ventures into net with great frequency and there is nothing Goffin likes more than a target at which to showcase his awesome ball-striking.
Pick: Goffin in 4
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Murray’s lead in the rankings will grow substantially now.
Rafa is on court.
Only tennis will make players to start a match at 10 pm!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Vamos Rafa!
Rafa is hitting his forehand well
jinxed it. He has hit two terrible forehands in this game.
Watching Rafa’s tennis live these days is a pretty scary thing; he can make us very nervous just watching him play.
THESE DAYS? I thought since day one when he started playing tennis. We are always there then watching him scratching his arse, tugging his shorts…aligning the water bottles etc etc etc while we on the other hand, are all quiet and seated next to the life support haha. ooohhh those days are gone for me as I become now a passive fan of tennis.
Stupendous forehand DTL winner!
poor game :/
Rafa starts slow, takes too much between the points, too many UEs! Nervous first set for no reason! He should be confident and strong instead! The only good thing is that these long lasting sets will wear out Marcos…
Vamos !
Relentless hitting from Rafa at the moment.
Rafa’s backhand is so damn solid. He is getting good penetration too. He is improving his level with every game now.
Zverev-Rafa would be a very good match.
Rafa is getting such a nice angle on his forehand CC! I talked about this last season too. He has been working on this pattern. He tries to create wicked angles with his CC forehand, pulls his opponent off the court and is waiting for a backhand CC from his opponent. He then moves inside the court to hit a forehand DTL and he hits that one early! Also, the follow-through is the conventional one more often than not. I love this pattern of play!
Through to R3! ✌✌ Vamos Rafa!
The unforced error count is high for Rafa. There is a lot of room for improvement but the next match could just be the one that brings out his best tennis.
Vamos!
If it doesn’t he will be out.
Rafa’s performance for this round 7/10.
Compared to where it needs to be to win a slam: 5/10.
About the same for Fed on both scales IMO.
Glad I didn’t pick Nole to win the tournament like most.
I only saw him lose the first set but when he’s not angry about it, I knew it was a bad sign for him. He is mentally lost.
Yes, far too many UEs. I’m sure he’ll be working on that before the next match. He said in his on-court interview that the night conditions are very different to daytime which is probably why he wasn’t as fluid and making unnecessary errors.
Nope, nothing to do with night vs daytime conditions I think! It’s Rafa fine tuning his FH which is not there yet! He had 31 UEs in his first match and it was during the day time! He needs to cut on those, otherwise he will be gone…
There were also sometimes several big signs of nervousness.
Rafa vs Bag match stats:
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C2iTJnIXEAIje9u.jpg
Rafa’s looking good but there are certain things to improve: break point conversion is terrible again: this time 6 out of 16! He just has to be more consistent in this regard!
Rafa can not afford to start slow with Zverev! He must be more aggressive! Unlike Marcos, Zverev plays fast and hard hitting tennis, Rafa must be focused from the start!
Hopefully Rafa will employ more of that beauty of his body serve! I love it!
Finally, this match was good preparation as Rafa was able to construct the points and hit angels making amazing winners with his FHs! Real treat for my eyes!
Vamos Rafa!
Agree. Except about hitting angels.
Ha ha, poor Angels being hit by Rafa!
Lol..,did not see this typo! But, whatever it takes for Rafa to win! Angels wouldn’t mind ?
BTW, Bagdy’s daughter was adorable! I would have loved for Bagdy to win this match if it was anyone else but Rafa on the opposite side of the net…
I’m so glad Rafa wins in straight sets, hope for more wins to come his way here. Vamos!
Highlights of Rafa’s match:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=avGpi45GGls
I finally watched my recording of Rafa’s match. I woke up at between 7 and 7:30 and turned on the TV and saw that it had started. I was up until about 2:00 trying to watch Novak’s match, but did not see the end. While I set the recording, I heard that Novak lost. I was shocked. I went back to sleep and got up to watch Rafa.
I think the night conditions caused Rafa to make more errors. He did say that the conditions are slower. I also thought that Baggy wasn’t st his best, I thought he would give Rafa more of a match.
The one thing that does concern me is Rafa not capitalizing on break chances.
It’s nice to see Rafa in the third round. But he is going to be up against it with Zverev. Whatever Rafa has, he’s going through need it against this kid.
I’d LOVE someone to show me a match where it was just 20 deg. C at night and Rafa sweat profusely prior to 2014.
Then I could shut up about it (which I would love as much as if not more than anyone here).