Rafael Nadal will look to stay undefeated on hard courts in 2013 when he kicks off his U.S. Open campaign on Monday. Up first for Nadal is Ryan Harrison.
Rafael Nadal and Ryan Harrison will be going head-to-head for the second time in their careers and for the second time this season when they collide in round one of the U.S. Open on Monday afternoon. Their only previous encounter came at the same stage of the Indian Wells Masters, where Nadal prevailed 7-6(3), 6-2.
The second-ranked Spaniard eventually captured the Indian Wells title, just as he has at every hard-court event he has played this season. Nadal just pulled off the Montreal-Cincinnati double, a stretch that included wins over Jerzy Janowicz, Novak Djokovic, Milos Raonic, Roger Federer, Tomas Berdych, and John Isner. The 12-time Grand Slam champion is 53-3 overall for the season, which features an incredible nine titles–one of which is the French Open.
Harrison peaked as high as No. 43 in the world last summer, but 2013 has been a major disappointment. Although the 21-year-old American is just 11-8 at the ATP level this season, he has shown some signs of recovery throughout the summer. Harrison reached the semifinals in Atlanta, beat Lleyton Hewitt in Washington, D.C. before losing to Juan Martin Del Potro, and he got past Alexandr Dolgopolov in Cincinnati prior to a 7-6(5), 3-6, 6-4 setback against David Ferrer.
A horrific draw continues a streak of bad luck for Harrison at Grand Slams: Robin Soderling in the first round of the French Open in 2011, Ferrer in the second round of Wimbledon in 2011, Marin Cilic in the first round of the 2011 U.S. Open, Andy Murray in the first round of the 2012 Australian Open, Djokovic in the second round of Wimbledon in 2012, Del Potro in the second round of the 2012 U.S. Open, and Djokovic again in the second round of this year’s Australian Open. This one has to be the worst of all given Nadal’s current form, and–once again–it likely won’t end well for Harrison.
This could be competitive for a while as Nadal gets settled into the tournament, but the No. 2 seed should roll in the end.
Pick: Nadal in 3, losing 11-13 games
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“No. 2 seed should roll in the end”
Glad Ricky qualified that remark!
Harrison keeps meeting top seeds in the early rounds and his ranking doesn’t really reflect the quality of his game. If Rafa starts slowly (as he is inclined to do in Slams) and Harrison keeps his cool (which is not always the case) then this opening round match could be more competitive than Ricky’s prediction. If Harrison can beat Isner he is no pushover – even for Rafa.
BTW: message for Shirling. Just want to say ‘Hi There’. Glad to see you’ve found your way to this site.
Rafa in 3!
ya think?
I think it could be Rafa in straight sets. It depends on how he comes out in this first match. He usually does take a few rounds to get himself going, so it is possible that if Harrison comes out and plays like he’s got nothing to lose then he could get a set. But it’s not a given.
Nah, I don’t think that Harrison can get a set off Rafa! 🙂
Rafa 7-5 7-6 6-4 Gabashvili types
I dont think Rafa will face any 1st round jitters. He has played a lot recently and won every match. He is full of confidence and will come all guns blazing.
Soon it’s time to go into battle.
Stay wholly focused, be strong and show your warrior spirit, Rafa!
Rafa in easy 3 sets 😉 I agree with Atul ..however, rafa tends to get nervous in opening rounds of slams so a tough set or two would not be that surprising. I am more focused on HOW rafa plays…he had tough battles against gabashvilli and istomin in USO 2010 rnd 1 and rnd 2 respectively but there we had rafa and his opponents playing high quality tennis. harrison is too erratic
vamosrafa,
I agree about three easy sets. As you said, if Rafa has a bit of the jitters then there could be a close set.
Rafa had it tough against Gaba and Istomin in the early rounds in 2010 because he wasn’t anywhere near his best form and because they both played much better than their rankings. It was the big serve that got him through those matches.
This time Rafa has had great preparation so I don’t expect him to struggle to find his game. A slam is a whole different thing than Masters tournaments and it can take a little bit to get used to the feel of the court and the longer matches, but this time I think Rafa is about as ready as he can be.
US Open: Rafael Nadal’s pre-tournament presser transcript (August 24, 2013)
http://rafaelnadalfans.com/
Rafa confirmed once again that he has worked on his game to be more aggressive. And he likes to play on the hard court – that’s news to me!
Excerpts.
Q. /…/ Can you describe your mentality going into hard courts this year and what might be different?
RAFAEL NADAL: I think you can play aggressive when you are playing well. That’s the first and important thing. Is true I’m trying to take the ball a little bit early, that I worked on my game to be a little bit more aggressive./…/
Q. A lot of people here in America talk about hard courts being tough on the body. Do you think hard courts are tough on your knees or on your feet or something else?
RAFAEL NADAL: I am not a doctor
Q. Do they affect your knees much?
RAFAEL NADAL: It would be great if some doctors create an opinion on that, but is something, is a conversation that we had hundreds of times in the past.
You know, in the past sometimes I felt not free to talk a lot about these kind of things, because then seems that I was talking because I played much better on clay than on hard.
Today I think I had good success on hard, too. I like the surface. I feel confident playing on hard. I like the hard court.—
Stone the crows…………………………did he really say that 🙂
Ed, certainly a lot of people get disappointed specially those who criticize him vocally that he’s only good on Clay a dirtballer, Now they heard different tune that may cause them unrest thinking about their idols chances now that Rafa has pronounced that he is confident and like the hardcourt haha
I so wish Rafa win US Open this year..
Vamos Rafa and good luck tonight on your first match.
Stone the crows! You come up with the best sayings! 🙂
Has the world turned on its axis? Rafa likes playing on hard courts! 🙂
Only once since 2007 has Rafa given up less than 13 games in the 1st round as he rarely plays great on his first day.
#VamosRafa
Ricky picking Nole on hard court again this year.
#3rdTimesTheCharm?
Nice, espn2 has switched from covering Rafa’s match to Sloane Stephens! Par for the course!
So it’s espn3 for me now.
Rafa up a break and serving for the first set.
first set to rafa! two more to go!
rafa’s not impressive so far 😐
two or three more gears to go!
Espn2 went back to Rafa’s match as he served it out. First set Rafa 6-4.
Rafa never plays his best in his first match. He won’t need to play his best to beat Harrison.
He doesn’t need to go up two or three more gears right now.
back to Sloane
🙂
I am watching on espn3. Rafa up a break now in the second set. 2-1
beautiful DTL
but now the play is going to be suspended 🙁
NNY: I’m watching the Eurosport lifestream, one of the commies is Taylor Dent: do you know who the other one is? The two of them have got verbal diarrhoea, talking to each other incessantly in that false matey manner that grates on the nerves. Ghastly.
Worst commies this side of the Ganges………………
LOL! Love it!
ed,
Do you get the same commentators as we do on espn3? Because these guys are so bad that I had to hit the mute button. They were trying to talk up Harrison earlier in the match, but now that he is down two breaks in the second set, they don’t have much to say.
Are you watching the same thing I am on Eurosport lifestream?