Top seed and world No. 1 Rafael Nadal is back in action on Wednesday at the Australian Open and will face world No. 52 Leonardo Mayer.
Date: 17 January 2018
Match time: Rafa is third on Rod Laver Arena. Not before 2 PM local time (AEST) / Tuesday 10 PM EST – New York, Montreal / 3 AM GMT – United Kingdom /4 AM CET – Spain, France, Germany, Italy. To convert to your local time, use this website.
Rafa has won all four of his career meetings with Mayer, who won the opening set when the pair met at the US Open in September. The Argentine is 1-25 lifetime against opponents ranked in the top 10.
| YEAR | EVENT | SURFACE | RND | WINNER | RESULT |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | US Open NY, U.S.A. |
Outdoor Hard | R32 | Rafael Nadal | |
| 2014 | Roland Garros France |
Outdoor Clay | R32 | Rafael Nadal | |
| 2013 | ATP World Tour Masters 1000 Indian Wells CA, U.S.A. |
Outdoor Hard | R32 | Rafael Nadal |
W/O
|
| 2013 | Acapulco Mexico |
Outdoor Hard | QF | Rafael Nadal | |
| 2012 | ATP World Tour Masters 1000 Indian Wells CA, U.S.A. |
Outdoor Hard | R64 | Rafael Nadal |
Good luck & Vamos Rafa!
Source: ATP World Tour
Well done Rafa! And from the looks of it, well done too for your commentary Rainier:):)
On to the next!
Thanks, Mac :). It’s been a while since I last saw you here.
Many don’t really tune up for early round matched but I love them.
They often give us a very good gauge of a player’s form besides being very “fresh”.
Also I love witnessing Rafa’s run from start to finish as much as I can and treat every match almost the same.
Slams are always more special but even an ATP250 (okay, Rafa doesn’t play those anymore) R1 or an exo with Rafa in it could get me pumped up.
It was a bit “lonely” “commentating” alone and but in the heat of the moment (match) I could only focus on the match and Rafa and typing as fast as I could. 🙂
But most often I would meet our usual suspects in Maria, Susie, Margo or Lorna, navdeep, jas_uk… etc. Not that I comment that much :).
Hi Rainier, I wasn’t troubled about Rafa’s first two matches but I am concerned about Dzumber. Just seeing his name caused me some unease. Once I looked him up I realized it was at the 2016 Miami Open that Rafa lost the first set to this opponent.
Dzumhur is playing very well but I am hoping he is no match for Rafa.
RAFA ROCKS
Anyway it was a very good match for Rafa in many sense.
He was tested and even pushed hard but was not in danger.
Only the 2nd match into the tourney after injury he already displayed truly high level of play.
Mayer when he was on is a dangerous player. He has the game. Just not the consistency or a top guy’s mentality (not so in this match!). He almost beat Fed in Shanghai once, holding 5 Bps and that is his favourite court.
Rafa was fully aware of it. I also fully expected him to go all out as well.
I’m glad he did. Only not too glad that the mach took almost 3 hours for a straightsetter and that is even a bit longer than Fed’s 5setters in the USO last year.
Talk about Rafa’s time bending ability. 😉
Hope you enjoyed the match as well.
Cheers.
Mayer earned the break! Deservedly so I have to say.
The set goes to the distance now.
5 all
Mayer serves.
Rafa’s on the break:
“Yeah, is not always the same. When you have a break in the serving for the match or serving for the set, there is always some breaks. Of course, is not a good thing.
But in this case particularly I personally was not losing the game because I was too nervous, because I felt too much tension. He played a great game, all the returns in, very long, playing so aggressive, hitting all the balls super strong, and having success.”
He gives full credit to Mayer. That’s gracious but mostly being fair. Didn’t expect anything less from Rafa and also that’s why I wasn’t disappointed about the break but more congratulating Mayer for this brave play getting rewarded.
Utterly remarkable hitting from Rafa and such grit and bravery from Mayer.
He earned himself a BP now.
Come on, Rafa. Close it out. 🙁
Ahhh. Such a shame. Out of no where Mayer got a mental lapse and he DFed 3 times to gift Rafa a duece from 40-love.
And of course Rafa gladly took it to serve out the set in the next game.
The match. 🙂
Very cool and cute ball girl brushes off the scare of Rafa’s almost hitting her when he’s trying a superb placed slice serve out wide on the duece court.
Such lovely girl. That smile. 😊😍
..when he’s trying to return