On Tuesday, Rafael Nadal will begin his China Open campaign against world No. 23 Lucas Pouille, who defeated our champ in last year’s US Open fourth round in five sets.
The 2005 China Open champion has a 20-5 win-loss record at the tournament, having made the final in three of his six previous visits.
Date: 3 October 2017
Match time: Rafa is third match on National Tennis Stadium. Around 4 PM local time / 4 AM EDT – New York, Montreal / 9 AM BST – United Kingdom / 10 AM CEST – Spain, France, Germany, Italy / 7 PM AEDT – Melbourne. To convert to your local time, use this website.
Rafa on playing Lucas:
There is a lot of great players. I have a very tough first round against Lucas. Let’s see. Tomorrow is an important day for me. Is a tough start, a difficult one. Let’s see. But I am focused on trying to be ready for tomorrow. I think I practised well, so let’s see tomorrow what can happen.
Rafa and Lucas have played twice before with the head-to-head currently tied at 1-1. The American won their first meeting on clay at the Monte Carlo Masters in 2015 while the Frenchman took victory in their most recent encounter, at the US Open on hard court in 2016.
| YEAR | EVENT | SURFACE | RND | WINNER | RESULT |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | US Open NY, U.S.A. |
Outdoor Hard | R16 | Lucas Pouille | |
| 2015 | ATP World Tour Masters 1000 Monte Carlo Monaco |
Outdoor Clay | R32 | Rafael Nadal |
GOOD LUCK & VAMOS RAFA!
Source: ATP World Tour
Rafa wasted 3BPs at 4-3 in the 2nd set 😡 then had to work so hard to win it at 8-6 in the TB. I’m still worried about this knee/ankle.
But still, it’s not the USO Rafa at all. Pouile is goating today. The court plays very, very fast and it just suits him much better. That combined with his firing up of playing against Rafa are pretty lethal. Kyrgios was also cruising very well on this court.
Honestly I don’t expect Rafa to win this event after the draw was out and knowing both Toni and Moya aren’t there. But man, he really should not lose against Pouille again here, him goating or not.
Rafa isn’t playing well. Too passive and still returning too far back, not to mention another 2 DFs early on at 1all 1st set in one – ONE – game and another one to give Pouille a BP at , well, again, 1all in the 2nd set. Had he not hold that serve, surely he would lose this match.
Pouille is reading his serve like a book and playing excellent return game with great depth, power and aggressiveness. Swinging freely in his service game obviously.
No sign of 1st set DP match, let alone the 2-4. Not feeling very optimistic here.
Rafa slipped and his shoe fell off 😥. I’m worried. Hope it’s nothing.
A bit strange. It fell off at Miami this year as well.
It definitey won’t look good at all if Rafa loses here, especially as the world no1 and freshly crowned USO champion. But it might save him in the long run.
Come on, Rafa. Step out of your comfort zone. Step up, step into the court. Start swinging and playing the net. Playing too far back and that passive only make it tough on both your body and mind.
Yes what is it with Rafa’s shoes? Nearly gave me heart failure, him sitting there on the court 😱
So pleased he won in the end!
Hi jas. He’s okay now. Not an injury it seems.
Here’s what he said in the post match presser:
“Probably it’s my fault with my movement. I don’t know. I think I did two aggressive movements. I think it’s strange. I have a lot of power on the foots and sometimes if I’m pushing them negative/not in the right way, maybe this thing can happen. That’s all.”
Hi Rainier, this is best out of three so there is no time for Rafa to “warm up” during a match. He lost to Isner at Laver. That worried me. I want to see consistency.
Losing his sneaker is troubling. It could cause him an injury were he to fall.
RAFA ROCKS
Hi Margo. He’s not injured, thankfully. But for sure he needs to find the cause and fix that issue, for sure. It also happened at Miami in the Fognini match. A bit coincident that it happened twice when he’s playing against the players that beat him at the USO most recently.
The Isner match – Isner was goating that day, playing one of the best match of his life for sure. It’s a combination of many things:
– Indoor, cold weather and very low ball
– Isner’s lethal serve. Not only it’s still as good as ever, he was also able to disguise and mix it up every well. Definitely the best serve performance he has ever played against Rafa.
– McEnroe. Super coach for sure. Super invested. Very intelligent and was one of the best servers + volleyers ever himself. Definitely he must have had a thing or two to show Isner as well as the whole Team World. No wonder that every player in the Team World was playing that well and inspiringly.
– Rafa: too nervous. Probably psyched himself up too much for all of his matches in this event. He was playing pretty bad in the Sock match as well. A bit lucky to win that match. Now with the “championship” on the line, playing against a player he had never lost to and also could never dominate, indoor, of course he’s gonna be vulnerable.
– Again, the ephant in the room – his court positioning. Toni and Moya have been insisting on it, but he still stubbornly keeps returning that far back. Yep, it worked against DP and Anderson and he won the USO. But he’s always gonna be vulnerable against big servers unless he fixes that.
In today match, he explained that since it’s getting dark as the match went on, the conditions changed and the ball was different. He had only practiced during the day. So it took time to adapt to those. He will player better in the next round for sure.
I agree Ranier, a fix is in order. I was saying it “could” cause injury.
My fingers are crossed for his subsequent matches. And I hope he skips Basel although I would love for him to win it — Fed’s home turf.
Thanks again for such a detailed and all encompassing reply.
RAFA ROCKED #16 AT THE USO
Thanks, Margo. I love the Laver Cup so much. So invested in it and love every bit of the Fedal thingy. I love Team World as well, how they almost took down the super Team Europe with all that energy and perfect move for each day and perfect tactics for every match (kudos to McEnroe!). I was actually a bit disappointed that it was really “quiet” here during the event.
Back to the tour. Basel is indoor and Rafa always want to play tuneup events before the main thing so unless he wins Shanghai and Moya can convince him, I don’t think he will skip it.
This Asian swing and indoor season, it’s not so much about Fed as it’s about a certain number of players who can hurt him on HC, and I’m not saying about the results only.
It’s worrying, his taxing current game (and nerves) and the chance that he might be overplaying again. Beijng never really suits his game; Tokyo would be much better. But he has great memory there (winning the Olympics 2008) and it might be a sponsor thing as well, so he still choses to play it almost every year despite failing to win it since 2005.
Of course I would love to see him win it but if he doesn’t, it’s okay. Bigger battles will be right around the corner and most importantly, he needs rest and an improve court positioning more than playing week in week out on a punishing surface like this.
Best of luck sweet Rafa 🍀🤗
VAMOS Champ! 🎾💪🏼😘
Great tennis to you Rafa.
RAFA ROCKS
Good luck an Vamos Rafa <3