Rafael Nadal advanced to the second round of the China Open with straight-set wins on Tuesday. He needed little more than an hour to beat Paolo Lorenzi 6-1, 6-1, fending off two break points as he took time to get his serve under control in the first set.
The 2005 China Open champion, seeded second in Beijing, improved his first-service percentage from 42 to 85 in the second set.
Emmanuel Wong/Getty Images
Emmanuel Wong/Getty Images
Emmanuel Wong/Getty Images
Emmanuel Wong/Getty Images
Emmanuel Wong/Getty Images
Emmanuel Wong/Getty Images
Emmanuel Wong/Getty Images
Emmanuel Wong/Getty Images
Emmanuel Wong/Getty Images
Emmanuel Wong/Getty Images
Emmanuel Wong/Getty Images
Emmanuel Wong/Getty Images
Emmanuel Wong/Getty Images
Rafael Nadal of Spain attends a press conference after winning against Paolo Lorenzi of Italy on the Men’s singles first round match on day four of the 2016 China Open at the China National Tennis Centre, on October 4, 2016 in Beijing, China. (Oct. 3, 2016 – Source: Etienne Oliveau/Getty Images AsiaPac)
Rafael Nadal of Spain attends a press conference after winning against Paolo Lorenzi of Italy on the Men’s singles first round match on day four of the 2016 China Open at the China National Tennis Centre, on October 4, 2016 in Beijing, China. (Oct. 3, 2016 – Source: Etienne Oliveau/Getty Images AsiaPac)
Rafael Nadal of Spain attends a press conference after winning against Paolo Lorenzi of Italy on the Men’s singles first round match on day four of the 2016 China Open at the China National Tennis Centre, on October 4, 2016 in Beijing, China. (Oct. 3, 2016 – Source: Etienne Oliveau/Getty Images AsiaPac)
After the match, Rafa said:
Today I think I played a very solid match, playing very aggressive with my forehand. I only played one not so good game. That was at 3-1 of the first set. But for the rest I played a very good match. I’m very happy.
Since last year in Montreal I am trying to play closer to the baseline and trying to return closer to the baseline, trying to play a little bit more aggressive
Today is an important victory. There are points to try to qualify for the World Tour Finals.
Sources: AFP, ATP World Tour
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From memory (no time to check complete accuracy): Rafa is only the second man in history to win RG and Wimbledon more than once. I believe the first to win RG and Queens back to back. He also reached 5 consecutive finals of Wimbledon bar injury in 2009 (the only year RF managed to win it).
MacEnroe and some other players boycotted RG in the 1990’s because they felt it was too difficult to play before Wimbledon.
Novak wins one RG this year and crashes out of Wimbledon to Querry.
It’s known that this back to back is one of the hardest things to achieve in tennis.
You’d think a ‘Rafa fan’ or just a tennis fan would know and appreciate this is one of Rafa’s many records.
How many times could anyone realistically expect Rafa to achieve this?
I’m not dictating to anyone but certain ignorant and immature comments on here need to be ignored.
‘Directed at the instigator’ – oh you must mean me – but I didn’t say anything about ‘humiliation’ so I think in fact you were directing it towards Jaybeer. Can’t even be honest when you’re challenged
Any first grader knows that proper names are capitalized. I thought “brown humiliation” was some sort of tennis slang. Not the first time here that I encountered a term I was unfamiliar with.
EVERYONE, fans and non-fans alike, knows of Rafa’s loses to Dustin Brown. However, whenever Rafa has lost a match I never considered it “humiliating.” I may have been sad for both Rafa and myself, but the best athletes in the world are not immune from defeat, be the defeat big or small.
B=capital (used for proper names)
b=lower case.
“Rafa’s loses?” If you want to be a pain in the neck and piss about spelling, be a proper one.
My comment was not directed at you but at the instigator.
However, since you were kind enough to point out that “losses” was missing an “s” it is incumbent upon me to reciprocate in kind. Capitalization of proper nouns has nothing to do with spelling, as any first grader knows.
RAFA IS ON A ROLL
Hi jaybeer – Margo is the font of all rafa knowledge – not!! She is totally obsessed.
Please be more kind towards each other this is not nice to see in public. Where are your manners. The game is what it was hard fast and very important to win for Nadal and he did it. Well done to him congratulations nadal a great game today .You are a champion and it shows you are getting up from the dust . Best wishes for the rest to come. We will be watching and cheering you on. God bless.
Anyone know where I can watch these matches ie on TV in the UK? Rafa’s playing tomorrow.
I am in the US and the Tennis Channel and TennisTV have been carrying the main matches in China. They will have Rafa’s match tomorrow, but they did not show Rafa’s doubles match today. They did show his first one. Several of the posters in Europe have mentioned batmanstreaming as a source.
Janice it starts at 12:30pm on 401 (channel)
You might will have to wait for who ever you want to see playing though. Good luck.
Congratulations gorgeous ❤️😍 You played amazing yesterday. – Keep up the good spirit 👍☀️😘
VAMOS Rafa and all the best of luck on forward champ 🎾💪😃🍀
FYI Y’all
Rafa is still in eighth place for the World Tour: Berdych just lost in the first round at Japan.
Bearer of good news – I love you Margo😁
@Teresa Gil
That the ATP has Rafa on the World Tour poster may mean that they have the “inside scoop” or are trying to boost ticket sales: Roger is out and Stan is injured. If Stan does not recover and needs to pull out, Rafa will be in no matter what.
CORRECTION: Nole is injured, not Stan.
I think it’s ticket sales – the ads usually say in smaller print ‘see the likes of’ Nadal etc
Hi Margo, I checked today and Rafa has moved up to #7 with Thiem’s loss to Zverev in the race to London. Interestingly, he had dropped to fifth in the overall rankings. Kei moved up to 4. Sadly, Kei had to withdraw so Rafa could move back up to 4, but Milos is very close and could also go ahead of him. I never take glee in any player’s injury, since we Rafa fans have had to deal with this so often.
I wanted to clarify that I was referring to the live ranking site which is updated daily. It does not become official until the tournaments are over. I love it since it tells you how much each player has at stake for each match and each tournament.
Thanks for sharing this info va4favre. Great fan spirit and welcome to the club! So few us us here offer other timely Rafa information.
GrandStand or some other tennis site emailed me that Rafa has moved up to seven and I was TOTALLY elated.
Thank you sooo much. So happy you posted to inform Rafa’s fans. I got distracted by my pets who were causing MAYHEM!!!! Now they are fast asleep as if nothing happened. Gggrrrr!
Funny you mention possible schadenfreude re injuries. I was hoping none of Rafa’s fans was happy about opponents’ injuries. Bad karma!
RAFA MOVES UP
All I hope is that Rafa gets through this tournament without injury. He played like the Rafa of old yesterday. So exciting to watch. My worry is that he practices so hard that he wears himself out and lays himself open to injury. Hope I am wrong.
This are exactly my thoughts/ fears…and on top, he is playing the doubles, too…
As I’m awaiting and hoping to see him in Basel, I am even too nervous to watch one of his matches from Bejing or Shanghai live (which did not happen for two years). I’m just praying at this time.
Yes, I,also agree, but he’s won the doubles today!
Ummm he does get carried away Beverley, Fedallica. Let’s hope he doesn’t hit another tweener – it’s a bad sign:(
LOL, Teresa! I hope so! no tweeners, please! I only watch Rafas matches in replay after I have read that all went well. I feel horrible and full of tension at the moment, but now I had to laugh :).
Oh Jay beer where have you been?
Rafael played well and it’s good to see him looking so confident – long may it continue
So rafa reveals here that 14 months after he started to get butchered by everyone on the tour (it started right after rg 14 with a brown humiliation and ended with another at wimbledon a year later), he decided in aug 15 to stand closer to the baseline. Incredible that a pro like nadal needed so much time to figure this out. The results have been spectacular since.
@Jaybeer What is a brown humiliation? I Googled but nothing came up.
See how they miss you? LOL
U know nothing. Dustin Brown, a total nobody on the tour, beat rafa twice on the grass. Totally humiliated him. But then again, rafa smiled so nicely, so who cares, right?
http://tribune.com.pk/story/913932/nadal-slumps-to-new-wimbledon-humiliation/ first thing found on google ‘nadal brown humiliation’. It happened, margo freak.
See old Father Time has surfaced again..spilling drops of gloom..lol
Vamos Rafa ! Eres el nùmero uno.
Very positive start. Rafael looks happy and relaxed. Long may it continue.
I missed seeing the game, but I’m SO GLAD Rafa won!!! I’m looking forward to seeing him play the next match!!! VAMOS, RAFA!!!!
well done you, it was a great game,it was so good to watch.will be watching your next game too vamos rafa.
I went to bed early just so I could watch this live. Rafa was awesome, but the Lorenzi of today was not the one who played Murray at the Open. Rafa served poorly in the first set, but greatly improved in the second. He had too many BH errors, but his FH was incredible. Luckily, nothing made a difference the way he played today. Definitely a great start, but we must not get carried away. Rafa looks adorable in tangerine too.
Very happy for you. Vamos Rafa <3
WOOW I saw this Match, and our Rafa was quite impressive! So many beautiful points, showcasing his never-give-up attitude. And those Aces! You could see that he was serving with a purpose.
Keep it up Rafa!
Great percentage!