Rafael Nadal will kick off his U.S. Open campaign as the No. 1 seed when he goes up against Dusan Lajovic on Tuesday. An all-Australian affair, meanwhile, pits recent Cincinnati runner-up Nick Kyrgios against John Millman.
(1) Rafael Nadal vs. Dusan Lajovic
Nadal will begin his quest for a third U.S. Open title, 16th Grand Slam overall, and second this season when he takes the court at Flushing Meadows on Tuesday. The 2013 champion in New York has not been past the fourth round since, missing the event in 2014, losing a stunner to Fabio Fognini in 2015, and falling in another five-setter against Lucas Pouille last summer. This year’s version of Nadal, however, is turning back the clock. The Spaniard boasts a 49-9 record in 2017 that includes a 10th French Open title and a runner-up finish at the Australian Open.
Up first for Nadal on Tuesday is a second career contest against Lajovic, who trails the head-to-head series 1-0 after losing their only previous encounter 6-1, 6-2, 6-1 in the Roland Garros fourth round three years ago. A hard court will obviously give the 85th-ranked Serb a much better shot, but not to the extent that he can be expected to seriously compete or even take a set. Lajovic is a modest 14-15 at the ATP level this season with a pair of quarterfinal appearances at 250-point events (Istanbul and Kitzbuhel). He is 0-8 lifetime against top 10 opponents and 2-21 in total sets. A date with the current world No. 1 is not going to end that trend.
Pick: Nadal in 3 losing 11-14 games
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John Millman vs. (14) Nick Kyrgios
Kyrgios and Millman will be going head-to-head for the first time in their careers on Tuesday. Aside from their country of origin, these two Australians could not be more different. Kyrgios, of course, is a combustible character who is oozing with talent throughout his big-hitting game. Millman, meanwhile, is generally considered to be one of the nicest guys on tour and he gets the absolute most out of himself even though his natural ability is not exactly off the charts. The result is a matchup in which Kyrgios is heavily favored but will have to work extremely hard in points if he is not serving well enough to win a whole host of free ones.
The world No. 17 is coming off a stellar showing in Cincinnati, where he recovered from a lingering hip issue to reach the final before losing to Grigor Dimitrov. Kyrgios had been a mere 2-5 in his seven previous matches, a stretch that included three consecutive retirements. Millman has dealt with physical problems of his own; in fact, the 28-year-old is down at No. 235 in the world mainly because he missed the first five months of this season due to a groin injury. The veteran is just 1-3 at the ATP level in 2017 and he is also a disappointing 1-3 in his last three Challenger matches this month. All signs point to one-way traffic for Kyrgios.
Pick: Kyrgios in 3
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Rip Lajovic has 2 BP.
Hey Nadal notice this trend. Everytime you get farther behind the baseline, you’re losing the point.
and nadal breaks back to regain the double break!
Rafa righted the ship when he got the double break back. He’s settled down now.
Is Rafa serving okay in 2nd set?
it’s not amazing, but it’s all right atm.
honestly the most inconsistent thing about him right now is his FH
Yes the forehand is the issue. The ESPN commies said that Rafa is trying to go for that shot to find the rhythm. He really needs to get that shot working.
His serving is fine.
They said Rafa is falling backwards off the ball and mistiming when he’s trying to hit his forehand.
Rafa missed the forehand again.
Forehand seems to be all over the place today…
Backhand and serve look fine.
Forehand is either a winner or a bust.
What happened in the first set? Rafa is going to need to get off to better starts in later matches. In matches against top players, he won’t be afforded the luxury of breaking back to love when opponent is serving for the set… All in all, though, straight sets is straight sets- no matter who the opponent! Rafa should be better in the next few rounds. I am a little bit concerned for Rafa, however, about the pressure he seems to be putting on himself to “show how I am #1″…
My summary:
Rafa played a tentative first set and didn’t look comfortable for most of the set. Lajovic played solid and it was pretty even. Even though Rafa ended up with respectable stats (17 winners to 12 UE), his forehand was sporadic.
After clinching it in a tie break that was sort of played nicely by Rafa, he played more freely.He unleashed an inside-out forehand to win the first point of set 2 and I knew he would open up his shoulders now. He was still making some forehand errors but it was improved hitting.
I thought his serving was pretty good! He can serve better but it was nice.
In the first set, Lajovic won 86% of second serves and this was a very surprising stat! Rafa needs to have more certainty behind his positioning and be more authoritative.
While watching I thought Rafa could be affected a bit by the indoor conditions and here is what he said after the match:
“I was just trying to be there. It was tough at the beginning, he was playing well and not making many mistakes. At the end of that first set it was important. And then I played the tie-break well. I’m very happy. I need to keep improving. Always the first round is never easy. Playing indoors. Always at the beginning you want to do it well. There is a lot of noise out here when the roof is closed. Big change. At the beginning it is a little strange, but it is a good call.”
Some more useful Q&A from rafa’s presser:
Q. Difficult first set but then you seemed to find your rhythm and pace and got through it pretty easily the second two. Talk about the match and where things began to turn for you.
RAFAEL NADAL: Yeah, tough beginning of the match. Some nerves, obviously, after a week here practicing well, I think. I was practicing, I think, every day at very high level, no? Today I didn’t play at that high level, but just like this, important thing is I won, and I have one more day to keep practicing and another chance to play better the next day, no?
Yeah, the important thing is win, because is normal that you have some nerves at the beginning and you get a little bit tight at the beginning of the tournament. So important thing is be through, and that’s what I did today, no? Tough start but then I played better, of course.
Q. What are some of your thoughts about the defeat in Cincinnati? Did it affect any of the things you worked on during the week in between?
….I believe that I gonna do it. But always is tough, as I said before, the beginnings. What happened in Cincinnati was normal. At the same time, is an event I never play very well there, only one time in my career….
. When you say everything went well in practice, do you mean you were playing much better than previous weeks, Canada and Cincinnati? Are you even more surprised maybe of this first set?
RAFAEL NADAL: I feel that I am practicing much better than what I did in Montreal and Cincinnati. That doesn’t mean that you’re gonna have a great result, but the real thing, the feeling is much more positive.
Then, of course, at the beginning of the match, he played well. I didn’t. As I said before, that’s part of the nerves a little bit, and you need to win matches, no?
Today was a match that I won, and I have another chance the next day. I need to be ready for that, and I hope to be ready for that, because I really worked a lot.
Some observations from me:
1.The second serve is going pretty strong. 96 MPH average speed is about 6-7 MPH quicker than it was last year at this stage. The fastest one was 107 MPH which shows he can also take risks on it now.
2.Second serve RETURN is a significant area for improvement. He MUST get more meaningful returns in play.
3. Rafa needs to be more careful with his inside-in forehands now. I was watching his AO final as well and he sometimes exposed his forehand corner way too much by running-out his backhand to hit an inside-in forehand to attach a right’s backhand. When he is not able to hit is deep enough, quick and strong players pounce on it. Kyrgios took those on the rise and hit flat CC backhands and Rafa struggled to reach for them. He is 31 now so cannot track down the balls into the open court as effectively.Even Federer punished him for these inside-in forehands. I noticed that whenever Rafa hit deep forehands to Fed’s backhand, he 90% of the times got short/neutral balls to control the next shot. It was when he landed those inside-in short (perhaps to simply get them high to fed’s backhand to break it as this pattern was not dealt with well by Fed in the past) that he shot himself in the foot!
So, he will obviously continue to hit them and it is still a devastating weapon. However, he must be a bit more selective and don’t leave too much court open on his forehand side. After all, his backhand is very good and is more than capable of handling and delivering blows at the moment.
please excuse the typos :/
Rafa hitting I/I FH (I assume you mean CC) was to attack his opponent’s FH corner; unless you’re saying he’s hitting it DTL to his opponent’s BH.
In any case, Rafa now has a good BH , both DTL and CC, so he’s not running around to hit his I/I FH (CC or DTL). I guess he realizes his own shortcoming and so isn’t exposing his FH corner that often to his opponent’s attacks.
To me, his problem is still his ROS court position way behind the baseline. His short returns as a result opens out opportunities for his opponent to move forward to attack it. He’s having ROS problems against big servers on Non Clay surfaces, because he wasn’t/isn’t given as much time to return serve compared to on clay. Perhaps he’s not as sharp (in his reflexes?) when returning serves (getting older?)?
LS,
Inside-in is referring to his run-around DTL forehands to attack backhand’s of righties. He leaves the whole court open. He is the master of employing that pattern due to his insane footwork but now that he is slower and because his opponents hit flatter, he needs to be a bit more careful. I saw that this pattern caused some problems in crucial moments in the AO final as well and were evident in Cincinnati against NK.
The ROS is a bigger issue. I think he is doing a fine job returning first serves! It is the second serve return he has not been able to calibrate to his liking this season on grass and the quicker hard courts. I saw him practicing the returns as well. He was returning Moya’s serves and experimented with different return positions. He is a it hesitant these days and confused about his return positioning. He has tried hard to master the art of taking returns on the rise but he just can’t seem to get consistent with it, esp on the forehand side. He needs more time on his forehand returns.
I think he is preparing to be flexible. He goes on the court with a strategy tailored for a specific opponent and then is prepared to be flexible to move away or closer to the baseline when needed. He has done it in the past so it is about striking the right balance.
I am telling you guys, all he needs to do is get his forehand to be more consistent. EVERYTHING will start to click and he will be the ferocious Rafa Nadal who has won this event twice!
I repeat that I don’t see why he will not do well here at the USO. I am still hopeful of a strong showing!
Judging by how Fed looks right now, Rafa is officially the favorite now to win the US Open. Only ones who can realistically beat Rafa are Kyrgios, Zverev, and Dimitrov, but none of them have tasted true slam glory yet, so Rafa has the edge there, imo. It’s his tournament to win now!
? Almost anyone in the top 75 can beat Rafa on a non-grass surface on any given day.
non-grass?? you mean non-clay? I would say only on grass. Well, if he is playing well on HC’s, should be okay.
I do agree with your point though. Rafa is far from a lock outside of clay these days.
Sure, they can, but it’s my realistic. Thus why I said “realistically”.
I started watching the match and was shocked to see that Fed lost the first set. The ESPN commies were saying that he’s not at 100%. But Fed came back to win the second set.
I don’t know that Tiafoe can play well enough to get the upset win.
Nah, Fed’s got this. And Tiafoe’s lost it. Roger did look very rusty in the first set. Maybe he was just slow to warm up.
The commies – come on, when Fed didn’t play well he’s not at 100%? I can say that for most of the other guys esp the top guys too! They can’t play at 100% all the time!
Fed is just rusty, not unlike Rafa; both having to adjust to different playing conditions. Fed’s back seems OK, if not he won’t be serving so many aces.
Kyrgios if healthy is the favorite for me. These confusion suit his game so well. I back him against anyone but Fed here. Winner of their fourth round match wins the title in my view.
Fed? Fed is already having problems with Tiafoe; if Krygios plays well enough to reach R4, he’s playing well enough to be able to beat Fed imo! Krygios at his best is much better than the 19yo Tiafoe.
Fed can improve his level lol it’s the first round chill. He lost a set to old man Melzer in the first round of Melbourne.
Well, it’s also too early to say he’ll reach the fourth round to meet Krygios; he has to improve his level for sure! Fed wasn’t playing as badly at the AO even in the early rounds, certainly not having a bad back concern.
I think he’s rusty from not practicing in the last one or two weeks due to back issue. Tiafoe wasn’t good enough to take advantage, having come so close, due to his inexperience.
Oh and I meant favorite besides Fed lol sorry bout that
What’s Fed doing in this fourth set? It’s such a weird match, Fed better in set two and three, Tiafoe in set one and four. It’s like Tiafoe was taking a breather in set two and three while Fed raised his level. I think we’ll going to a fifth set, puzzling match!
I checked back to see if the match was still on. I can’t believe that it is going the distance.
It is a weird match just looking at the score line. It looks like he went away in set four. I thought Fed had control of the match and stopped watching.
Fed relies heavily on his serves, he serves > 10 aces to keep himself alive in the match. He’s far from playing well imo; it’s Tiafoe who’s far too inexperienced and too one dimensional (big serving and hard hitting, nothing much) and so the errors are coming from Tiafoe.
It seems to me Tiafoe only has his BH and his serve; not much he can do with his FH it seems.
Well Tiafoe just broke Fed as he was serving for the match. Now Tiafoe is down 0-30 on his serve.
Crazy match!
Oh. My. God. Tiafoe just broke to get to 4-5. My money’s still on Roger. Love – 30 with Tiafoe serving.
who would’ve thought? after rafa’s slight wobble that turned out to be nothing. at the end of the day he is the one licking his lips after that performance by federer.
Fed wins in the end as expected! He shouldn’t have problem in R2; I’m not sure about R3 though, with some erratic players like Verdasco, F Lopez and Kutnezsov looming.
I want Rafa’s day shirt, lovely colour.
Fed is the clear fav for the title
Are you kidding with this? After nearly losing to Tiafoe?
I don’t think so.
Yes nny I am not kidding. He was worried about his back hence the wobble. He admitted it as much. Now that he survived he knows his body will hold up. The only person who can beat him is kyrgios but in best of 5 may not. I have no hopes on rafa based on what I saw post French.
Sanju,
It is absurd to dub Fed or anyone as the obvious winner after barely one round of play. You should know better than that. Thrrr is far too much tennis still to be played to make tgst kind of statement.
I don’t understand why you would count out Rafa. After one match? You think he needs to be playing his best now? The goal is to win and get through the early rounds and play himself into form. It can be done. I am not about to write off Rafa after one match!
Fed barely scraped through against the likes of Tiafoe. Yet you think this means he will win? Nobody can beat him but Kyrgios? I have always said it, but it bears repeating now. There is no such thing as a sure thing at a slam.
Carlos Moya: “The 1st set didn’t reflect what he [Rafa] has been doing these days during practice. We have to take into account that the 1st round in a major is never easy because of the nerves and other things. What matters is to try to win in whichever way the first 2-3 matches to gain good feelings. If he gets to R3 or R4, and he’s won the previous matches, things will surely be different.”
http://www.elespanol.com/deportes/tenis/20170829/242726602_0.html
Vamos Rafa!
Fed is hiding his back issues. 100% he is compromised. Nothing else explains his 4th set performance.
He clearly said in presser his back is fine. What matters is he won.
He can say what he wants. He will not say he is injured while still in the tournament
I won’t be that confident of Fed’s chances. Too many question marks after this performance. Fed would not send a message of vulnerability to the field by saying his back is bad. Only his performances in the next rounds will tell how good his chances are.
I don’t think Rafa’s performance was that bad for a first round. Let him play for a couple more rounds and we shall see.
vr,
I agree with you. That fourth set last night showed that Fed was not okay. He should have closed it out then.
There is no way that Fed will let on if his back is not okay. He’s not going to give his opponents any idea that he is vulnerable.
I simply do not get why anyone would be so sure of Fed’s chances after that performance. What if Rafa was pushed like that? He wasn’t great in his first match but still got the job done in straight sets.
I think Moya said it best with Rafa. He needs to get some matches under his belt and okay himself into good form. It can be done. I am not giving up on Rafa.
Fed’s next matches should tell us if the back is still an issue. Fed didn’t look that good in Montreal. The back acted up in the final abdcthat was it. Now these are Bof5 set matches. That takes more out of players. Backs are funny. You never know when they can act up again.
Rafa needs to play himself into good form. *
Yeah agree that Fed isn’t the fave judging by his performance in R1. This reminds me of Fed’s R1 match at Wimbledon 2010 vs Falla; Fed got a scare when he was pushed to five sets. He lost in the QF to Berdych thereafter, disclosing that he had thigh injury.
I think Fed’s back may give him problem if he is being pushed in his matches to go the distance. Fed normally doesn’t go five sets in his first round matches at the slams, esp when it’s on quicker surfaces like Wimbledon and USO. I think that 1) he’s rusty to start with, 2) he’s cautious about not pushing his back too hard, 3) his level has gone down after Wimbledon, so with or without back injury, he’s not playing as great as his early HC season, or Wimbledon.
Good analogy tehre when you mentioned the win over Falla in 2010, Luckystar.
Federer cannot afford to play long matches early on esp when his fitness is in doubt. I don’t think this last performance would have given him any extra confidence. May be he now he thinks his back is not as bad and he can play more freely but otherwise, it was not good match for him.
Especially now with Gasquet out, there is absolutely not reason that Rafa can’t at VERY least make the QF. And given Fed’s performance last night, unless he really was just rusty (which I doubt that’s all it was), I think Rafa/Kyrgios/Zverev/Dimitrov have to at very least be considered equal faves to Fed, if not even above him. I really think that this tournament is now Rafa’s for the taking. Of course he CAN lose to a number of guys, but I don’t realistically see it happening in a BO5 format. We shall see! I’ll be interested to see how Rafa handles Berdych, assuming they meet…
I agree about there being no reason why Rafa should not get to the quarterfinals. Gasquet out emphasizes it. Rafa has a clear path to a possible meeting with Dimi.
It’s on Rafa’s racket. I think Moya articulated his situation very well. Rafa has to get match play and a few wins under his belt. He does not have to be at his best in the early rounds. He has to get through to the second week.
Yeah it was nice to hear that from Carlos. Gasquet would have been a nice rhythm match to be honest. Dimitrov is a different proposition though!
Kevin, Rafa is no way the favourite for this tournament. He has yet to show that he is a top player since the end of the clay court season, at least going by his results. If the makes it the QF to meet Dimitrov, the latter will be favoured.
Fed is a question mark. I thought Tiafoe would give him a challenge, but the way Roger played that 4th set was a head-scratcher. His chances have improved with Kyrgios out, but his level remains to be seen.
If Federer and Rafa should make it to the semis, bear in mind that Nadal has said he doesn’t want to play Roger at the USO. Maybe a bit too much honesty on his part there.
Joe, Rafa certainly meant it as a joke, why do people take it so seriously? It’s as if he can choose who he wants to play against!
It’s obvious players want to have an easier path to the title, not a more difficult one! If anything, Fed was the more serious one with his answer, that he preferred playing Rafa at night, at AA (he didn’t choose a day match as he knew the ball bounced higher during the day).
Don’t think Berdych can trouble Rafa, if they meet in R4. By then Rafa will be match ready for tough opponents.
I think Rafa if he gets going, will reach the SF. Dimi plays OK against a qualifier, but Dimi’s problem is always consistency within a match; I guess it’s his mental focus problem.
R. Nadal owns Richard Gasquet (H2H 15-1).
Roger Federer is the favourite to win #USOPEN.
R. Federer struggled in the 1st round of Australian Open(J. Melzer) but later he blew everyone away, don’t let Roger Federer deceive you, he is a man on a mission and that mission is 3 Grand Slams.
I knew he would struggle but the match ending in 5 sets was a surprise.
Having said all this, am not sure i picked him(R. Federer) to win the title in my bracket, i can’t remember who i picked, i filled my bracket in less than 5 minutes.
It better not be Rafael Nadal cos if it is someone is going to…
It is 15-0. He has never lost to Richard.