Nine-time champion Rafael Nadal showed little signs of rust on Wednesday when he played his first match in 200 days and beat fellow Spaniard Pablo Carreno Busta 6-1, 6-1 in the Internazionali BNL d’Italia in Rome.
Nadal, who received a bye into the second round, has not played a tournament since winning his 85th singles title in Acapulco, Mexico, having skipped the Western & Southern Open and the US Open due to concerns over COVID-19.
The match was Nadal’s first on clay in 465 days after his French Open triumph last year and the 34-year-old Spaniard sent an ominous message to the field as he dominated the US Open semi-finalist from the start in an empty Foro Italico.
Photo: Reuters
“It’s good to be back on the Tour, but obviously the feeling is not the best playing without crowds,” Nadal said. “At least there’s one positive thing, the sport is back.”
Nadal broke in the fourth game to take a 3-1 lead and did not look back, winning the last 10 points in the opening set to put down a marker for Carreno Busta, who struggled with the pace of the ball on clay after two hardcourt tournaments.
The second set was more of the same as a jumpy Nadal could not wait to get going between games and finished the match in 73 minutes with 20 winners, while Carreno Busta made 28 unforced errors.
“I played a good match, maybe he was a little bit tired from New York, [where] he played an amazing tournament,” Nadal added. “It’s a perfect start for me. I played solid, some good shots with the forehand and backhand.”
Italian wildcard Jannik Sinner pulled off a stunning upset in the second round when he beat third seed Stefanos Tsitsipas 6-1, 6-7 (9), 6-2 to take revenge on the Greek who beat him in straight sets at the same stage last year.
Earlier, top seed Novak Djokovic returned to winning ways after his US Open default, beating Italian wildcard Salvatore Caruso 6-3, 6-2.
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Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
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