Rafael Nadal made an appearance on Suzanne Lenglen on Saturday where he beat world No.45 Cameron Norrie 6-3, 6-3, 6-3 in two hours and seven minutes hitting 35 winners in the win.
The showdown was the third time Nadal has played the British player this season. He had previously recorded wins over Norrie at the Australian Open and Barcelona where he didn’t drop a set. Continuing that winning trend in Paris, Nadal won 70% of his service points as he broke his opponent six times en route to the victory.
” It’s very nice to play today on Suzanne Lenglen in front of an incredible crowd so thank you very much to all and for me, it is very special to play here at Roland Garros on both Phillipe Chatrier and Lenglen its amazing for me,” The world No.2 said during his on-court interview.”.
The first set was pretty tight with the first five games going on serve until the world number three had the first three breakpoints of the match and broke to take a 4-2 lead. That break was enough for him to serve out the first set and take it 6-3 in 36 minutes.
Nadal experienced some early pressure in the second set down 1-0 and faced two breakpoints. He was able to save one of them before Norrie broke to take an early 2-0 lead. The Spaniard responded the following game breaking right back and the next three games were all breaks of serve until the number three seed was able to hold serve to level the set at 3-3. The following game the 34-year-old had a breakpoint with a pretty nice lob over Norrie’s head and broke the following point to take a 4-3 lead. He went on to seal the second set by the same 6-3 score with a cross court backhand winner.
The first three games of the third followed a similar pattern with both players holding serve and at 2-1 again it was the Spaniard who earned two breakpoints and broke to take a 3-1 lead. At 4-1 the world number three had a chance to go up a double break but the Brit hung in and saved it before holding serve. Although it did little to deter Nadal who served out the match a couple games later.
“He is having the best season of his career winning plenty of matches,” Nadal said of his latest opponent. “It was a tough third round but I found a way and that’s the most important thing for me”.
Nadal will now face the Italian teenager Jannik Sinner in the fourth round of Roland Garros.
