Rafael Nadal seemed to have a hangover–and may still have one–following his Monte-Carlo Masters semifinal loss to Fabio Fognini, but he persevered through it to reach round three of the Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell on Wednesday afternoon. Nadal was nowhere near his best and needed two hours and 50 minutes to scrape past Leonardo Mayer 6-7(7), 6-4, 6-2.
The Spaniard failed to serve out the first set at 5-3, missed one set point with Mayer serving one game later, and squandered two more set points in the tiebreaker. He started to get on track in the second set before really picking up the pace in the third.
“It wasn’t the best start (to the tournament),” Nadal lamented. “Not the best feelings out there this afternoon, but I found a way to keep going and to win the match. Today that’s the main thing. [Mayer] competes well against everybody but probably today [the problem] was not that he competed very well against me. I was not competing that well.”
Still, the 11-time champion improved to 59-3 lifetime in Barcelona. Next up for him on Thursday is compatriot, good friend, and familiar foe David Ferrer. They will meet for the 32nd time after Ferrer trounced Lucas Pouille 6-3, 6-1 during second-round action on Wednesday. Ferrer beat Mischa Zverev by the same score on Monday.
“He’s a good friend,” Nadal said. “One of the best players that we have been watching the last 15 years. It’s going to be a special one.”
It could be their last one, too, as Ferrer is retiring at next month’s Madrid Masters.
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