Rafael Nadal is not sure how his injured left knee will respond to his first hardcourt match of the year at the BNP Paribas Open.
Nadal is a two-time champion and three-time finalist at the event. He has not played a match on a hard court in almost a year and is only a month into his comeback from a left-knee injury that sidelined him for seven months.
He has played three tournaments since returning, all on clay, and won titles in Brazil and Acapulco, Mexico, after losing to Horacio Zeballos in the final in Chile in his first week back.
Photo: Reuters
“The results on clay were positive, especially because the knee was feeling better and better every week, especially last week,” Nadal said. “Now I’m going to try here on hard [court]. I don’t know [what might happen]. I cannot say much. I’m not confident about what I will be able to do here after one year of not playing on hard. I will try my best. I don’t expect anything in results here.”
His first match will be today, against Ryan Harrison of the US.
Down the road could be a quarter-final round matchup with No. 2 Roger Federer and a semi-final match against No. 4 David Ferrer, whom Nadal beat 6-0, 6-2 in the Acapulco final.
For that to happen, it would take the same kind of improvement Nadal saw between his loss to Zeballos and his win over Ferrer.
Two-time tournament champions Lleyton Hewitt and Daniela Hantuchova both won long first-round matches on Thursday. Hewitt, who got his titles back-to-back in 2002 and 2003, beat Lukas Rosol of the Czech Republic 6-4, 3-6, 6-1 and will face No. 15 seed John Isner today.
Hantuchova, the women’s champion in 2002 and 2007, beat qualifier Stephanie Foretz Gacon of France 6-3, 3-6, 6-4 in 2 hours, 12 minutes to set up a second-round match against reigning champion and top seed Victoria Azarenka.
In women’s first-round matches on Thursday, Taylor Townsend, a 16-year-old American playing her fourth professional match of the year, beat Lucie Hradecka of the Czech Republic 3-6, 7-6 (7/1), 6-3 and 42-year-old Kimiko Date-Krumm of Japan was a 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 winner over Galena Voskoboeva of Kazakhstan.
The men’s first round started with David Nalbandian of Argentina beating Marcel Granollers of Spain 6-4, 6-2 and Bernard Tomic of Australia ousting Thomaz Bellucci of Brazil 6-4, 6-3.
Australian Alex de Minaur reached the second week of the US Open for the third year in a row with little fanfare on Saturday and said he intended to keep winning until the tournament organizers were forced to give him better billing. Despite being the eighth seed and a quarter-finalist last year at Flushing Meadows, De Minaur’s third-round match against German Daniel Altmaier was scheduled for Court 17 — the smallest of the four stadium venues in the precinct. “It is a little bit of a headscratcher for me. I’m not gonna lie,” he told reporters after progressing 6-7 (9/7), 6-3, 6-4,
Noah Lyles on Thursday warmed up for the upcoming athletics world championships by chasing down Olympic champion Letsile Tebogo to win the 200m at the Diamond League final. Lyles trailed Tebogo at the start, but gradually erased the deficit over the final 100m and pipped the Botswana sprinter to the line by centimeters. Lyles, the Olympic 100m champion and reigning world champion in both the 100m and 200m, clocked 19.74 seconds in a slight headwind. Tebogo was 0.02 seconds behind. It was Lyles’ sixth Diamond League title, a record for track athletes. “Six, that’s a big number,” Lyles said. “Shoot, that’s another record on
Jonas Vingegaard on Tuesday claimed the overall Vuelta a Espana lead while Jay Vine earned the stage 10 victory for his second triumph of the race. Two-time Tour de France winner Vingegaard overhauled Torstein Traen’s lead to head the general classification by 26 seconds from the Norwegian, with Joao Almeida third and trailing the Dane by 38 seconds. Vine put in an unmatchable performance on the final climb to finish ahead of Spanish Movistar riders Pablo Castrillo and Javier Romo. “Back in red, I’m happy with it, it’s a beautiful jersey,” Vingegaard said. “I’m happy with how the day went,
Brentford striker Yoane Wissa says he wants to leave the English Premier League club and that it is “unduly standing in my way.” A day before the end of soccer’s summer transfer period, Wissa posted a lengthy statement on social media yesterday criticizing Brentford for rejecting an apparent offer from another Premier League club despite his willingness to switch between the teams. Wissa, a reported target for Newcastle, is yet to play for Brentford this season and had already removed any association with the club from his Instagram account. Yesterday, the 28-year-old DR Congo international took it a step further on the social
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