TENNIS ROLAND GARROS – If Novak Djokovic was dominant yesterday against Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Rafael Nadal was near perfection against his Serbian opponent, Dusan Lajovic 6-1 6-2 6-1. Nadal showed off all his classic trademark qualities that has seen him become the 8 time French Open champion. Cordell Hackshaw
Interviews, Results, OOP, Draws from the Roland Garros
If Novak Djokovic was dominant yesterday against Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Rafael Nadal (1) was near perfection against his Serbian opponent, Dusan Lajovic 6-1 6-2 6-1. Nadal showed off all his classic trademark qualities that has seen him become the 8 time French Open champion. The King of Spain may be abdicating his throne but Nadal remains the King of Clay and shows absolutely no signs of ending his reign. The Spaniard was ruthless on court showing signs of being stingy not just with games but even more so with points.
The first point of the match was a 23-stroke rally and Nadal won it when Lajovic’s one-handed backhand went into the net. Nadal loves the one-handed backhanders as he has an amazing success rate against even the best of them (Roger Federer, Stanislas Wawrinka, Richard Gasquet and Nicolas Almagro). Lajovic, ranked 83rd in the world, did not stand a chance. This was a sign of things to come because Lajovic would find the task of winning points his biggest problem. Nadal was relentless on very single point. He raced out to a 5-0 lead after 29 minutes whereas Lajovic rarely won more than a point in any of the games. Lajovic narrowly avoided the bagel set when he saved a break point in the 6th game and held to force Nadal to serve it out 5-1. Nadal quickly closed out the set 6-1. He won 27 points to 12 from Lajovic who made 16 unforced errors alone in the set.
The 2nd set saw Nadal on the brink of a golden set as he won the first 17 points of the set taking a 4-0 0-15 lead. However, Lajovic continued to fight and was soon on the board down 1-4. Lajovic went on to hold serve again at 2-5 going on a 7 points run. He would have triple break points on Nadal’s serve when the Spaniard was serving for the set 5-2. However, he could not stop the superior game of Nadal who closed it out 6-2. By the 3rd set, Lajovic was completely dismantled. The Serbian won a single point on his serve and secured his only game of the set when Nadal bizarrely got broken serving for the match. Nadal broke Lajovic at love to take the match 6-1 6-2 6-1 in just over an hour and a half.
“[I]t was a positive match for me, obviously. I think I played a great first set. In my opinion, he didn’t play bad in the first set. I played with no mistakes and having the control with the backhand, with the forehand from the baseline. Happy with the way that I played” Nadal said after the match. He won 81% of his first serve points and 64% of his 2nd serve. He had 16 winners to 19 errors. Lajovic cannot boast of such numbers as he was only winning 50% on his first serve, 14% on his 2nd serve and had 14 winners to 43 errors. There was much to admire about the Serbian’s game such as his backhand and his willingness to come in from the baseline. However, his inexperience was very apparent during the match as he was rushing many of his shots and making unnecessary errors.
Nadal spoke about his upcoming matchup against David Ferrer (5) who he will face in the quarterfinal as fellow Spaniard took out South African Kevin Anderson (19) 6-3 6-3 6-7 6-1. This is a repeat of last year’s final where Nadal came out on top and also a re-match from the Monte Carlo quarterfinal this year when Ferrer beat Nadal in straight sets. “I think that I am a little bit better than when I was playing against him in Monte Carlo, but I think he’s playing great, too. He played three weeks in a row very high level…He’s coming to the match with confidence and with confidence that he gave me the last time, so is extra thing for me. It will be a tough one. I know to play against him and to have chances to win I need to play very well.” Nadal has a 21-6 head-to-head record against Ferrer.
