Rafael Nadal will be back on the court for a second consecutive Masters 1000 tournament when he plays his first-round match at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia on Thursday.
Even if he isn’t the Nadal of old, the Spaniard’s clay-court swing has been encouraging enough. Most importantly, the 37-year-old’s hip injury certainly hasn’t gotten worse and may even be improving. If that wasn’t the case, he obviously wouldn’t be playing in Rome. At the Barcelona 500 Nadal defeated Flavio Cobolli in easy straight sets before losing to Alex de Minaur. In addition to avenging that loss to De Minaur at the Madrid Masters, Nadal also picked up victories over Darwin Blanch and Pedro Cachin. The 22-time Grand Slam champion eventually fell to Jiri Lehecka in round four.
Up first for Nadal this fortnight is Zizou Bergs. The 24-year-old Belgian peaked at No. 103 in the rankings earlier this season and comes in at No. 108. His exploits on clay so far this spring have been outstanding, highlighted by back-to-back Challenger finals in Sarasota (runner-up) and Tallahassee (champion). Bergs didn’t have much recovery time prior to Madrid and lost to Luca Van Assche in three sets, but he is back on track with successful Rome qualification at the expense of Patrick Kypson and Jerry Shang.
Facing Nadal–even this version of him–at the Foro Italico is a long way from Challenger tournaments in Florida. It’s also never easy going up against Nadal for the first time under any circumstances. The weight of shot is not something Bergs will be accustomed to seeing.
This won’t be a walk in the park for Nadal like it was in the Madrid first round against Blanch, but the former world No. 1 should advance.
Pick: Nadal in 2
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Vamos rafa…in 2