Rafael Nadal and Karen Khachanov are quickly becoming familiar foes, and they will face each other once more in the U.S. Open third round on Friday. Dominic Thiem and Taylor Fritz are also aiming for spots in the last 16.
(1) Rafael Nadal vs. (29) Karen Khachanov
In the past two years, Nadal has played Khachanov four times on three different surfaces (hard, clay, and grass) and the Spaniard has not yet lost a set. The two men last met just a few weeks ago in the semifinals in Toronto, where the Russian kept the match respectably close, but still went down in straights.
Unfortunately for Khachanov, Nadal was still looking for his hard-court groove in Toronto. Based on his impressive performance against Canada’s Vasek Pospisil in the second round, Nadal’s hard-court tennis (especially his serve) has kicked into high gear.
Khachanov is quite tall at 6’6”, so Nadal’s topspin forehand does not kick up to shoulder-height on the Russian. Still, Nadal owned the court against Pospisil on Wednesday and if he plays anywhere near the same level he should come through in straight sets.
Cheryl pick: Nadal in 3
Ricky pick: Nadal in 3
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(9) Dominic Thiem vs. Taylor Fritz
This may just be an opportunity for Fritz to find his way into the round of 16. Thiem, the Austrian who has distinguished himself on clay courts, has not performed well off his preferred surface. His results in New York this week are his best on a hard court since the Australian Open in January.
Fritz enjoyed a strong start to the 2018 season but he has struggled of late, as well. He had a good showing at the Indian Wells Masters, where he reached the round of 16; coming into New York, though, he had not won two matches in a row since May.
Thiem heads into the third round off a five-set win over American Steve Johnson, while Fritz’s second-round opponent Jason Kubler retired after going down two sets to one in the brutal New York City heat earlier in the week.
Cheryl pick: Thiem in 4
Ricky pick: Thiem in 4
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It’s his serve that’s the concern, I mean how many times he broke serve and then served poorly to lose his own serve right away? It’s almost always in this match. His first serve % wasn’t great I think, below 60%?
Khachanov played well and he would’ve troubled anyone, even Fed, Djoko and Delpo; but it’s still how poorly Rafa played in his service game after breaking serve that’s shocking. And no, he’s hitting short, because he standing so far back, allowing Khachanov to step in to attack the ball with relative ease. His inability to vary his court position at or behind the baseline was a problem and it took him until set 3 or 4 to be able to step inside the court, thus he’s playing better in both sets.
Did you notice serve speed? It was down as well. Also I thought he played a great second round. Pospisil was hitting huge as well. But Rafa served very well and had more control. He was winning service games very easily .
Only good part was that he never looked in pain. Also Rafa is playing first, so he would get 2 days off. Question is when ? Before QF or before SF ?
Did not understand your message..you mean 2 days off before? I think he plays 4th round Sunday…then qf Tuesday..semis on Friday..so 2 days off before semi looks like
I think Rafa will win 4th round . That guy does not have a big game and serve.
But Anderson is serving huge. But he has played two 5 setters. If he plays a long match with Theim, I think he would be cooked up. Plus he has his own set of medical problems.
The knee is the biggest elephant in the room…had the knee not been a question…Rafa would have easily gone to semis atleast..delpo is always a threat n I doubt either coric or isner/raonic will take him down.
A tough match always gives Rafa confidence at uso (watch last year 3rd round)…only if there was not a knee sword hanging …however Rafa’s presser he looked ok…though he said he hopes to be 100 percent for next match.
Rafa won!! I only had live scores so I went to bed thinking he was 2 sets to love down and bound to lose judging from the comments here! Someone here said he lost the second set!! Man was i fed up getting up this morning thinking he had lost to khachanov!!
Actually this match could be a stepping stone for Rafa winning the whole thing. He always says that winning when you are playing poorly matters the most as does Toni. Surely battling through this and managing to stay positive enough to win will give him confidence. He won 2 tie breakers against a big server as well!
I saw Kachanov play his second round match on the court 10 and it was only then that I realized what it means for them to be able to play on Ashe stadium! It is reasonable for Kachanov and other lower ranked players to give their very best and “die” on the court!
I thought Kachanov was rather ordinary in his second round match but I did post a comment here saying that he hit hard and could sustain the rallies with Rafa but would not make a big problem for Rafa! It would have been like that if it wasn’t for Rafa’s obvious knee issue. We all know even a smaller physical problem creates huge doubts in Rafa’s head due to his history of injuries..,and it immediately affected his fragile first serve percentage….
Overall I don’t think Rafa played that bad, but Kachanov did grab the opportunity on weakened Rafa and played very welll yet insufficient to beat the King!
If Rafa’s knee is ok he should be fine in his next few matches.., his big obstacle I see in Delpo …
Vamos Champ!
Yes Natashao I also think if rafa was worrying about his knee it will obviously have affected his whole game. It’s very hard to serve well if you don’t want to put pressure on your knees!
I agree with you Amy. I See this more as a stepping stone match for Rafa. He said on clay he prefers matches to be over fast as he has inbuilt confidence there largely but on hc he needs a tough match to get the confidence. If moya said that Rafa is nervous in the match, it means he saw this match as the crucial one. Let’s not forget that kachanov ran him very close at Toronto too…64 76. Rafa said there he hits really hard and serves very well. When the draw came out the first thing I said is kachanov in third round is anything but easy n wished he had drawn someone else from 25 -32( not kyrgios).
If Rafa wins 4th…it may Not be Anderson, it could be thiem too n he is no pushover…if he knows Rafa is hampered…he will go all out.
Btw Amy how could you sleep till you knew the result…I could not sleep till 5 am till match got over and I wasnt even watching 🙂 yes the comments on this thread which I read later were so depressing too 🙂
I took a sleeping pill sanju!☺
I have had a really horrible time recently as my new neighbour has been persecuting me with her noise so I had to try and sleep!but yeah I woke up in a lousy mood thinking he had lost!so I am actually really chipper today having found out the good news. I do think this match could be just what rafa needs to fire him up! Providing his knee is ok that is….yes I remember you talking about khachanov sanju…good catch on that one!!☺
Tbh i never look far ahead in tourney s it’s always step by step with me as there are always unforeseen twists and turns.
Winning ugly is very important…do think it gives rafa a big boost!!
Point to be noted was he was moving n running way better in third and fourth sets..
If you’d watched the match, I doubt you could stay positive, when Rafa got broken, tried hard and finally broke back, and yet in his next service game immediately following, he lost his own serve!
It didn’t help that he had low first serve %, at one stage at 48% and Khachanov was feasting on his weak second serve; not to mention all the short balls from Rafa when he was hitting way behind the baseline. Adding to all those, he got his knee taped during the second set, that made things worse!
I seriously thought Rafa was going to lose the match, because he got his knee taped during the match and was serving poorly, playing defensively having to run so much. As it turned out, his knee wasn’t that bad and he really upped his level in set three and four, got nervous when serving for the match, got broken and had to fight to win the TB in the fourth set to win the math.