Rafael Nadal’s ability to make a quick recovery from multiple ailments was thrown into doubt last night as he lost 1-6, 6-3, 6-4 to Michael Berrer at the Qatar Open.
This first-round match was Nadal’s first of the 2015 ATP World Tour and he appeared to have had insufficient time to recover from an appendectomy, and far too little match practice over the last two months.
Nevertheless, it was a humiliating outcome for one of the most successful players of all time, who won the first set at a canter, and then found himself quite unable to play anywhere near the standard he would have hoped for.
Berrer is a 34-year-old qualifier ranked outside the top 100 who is playing the last season of his career.
Nadal has also been suffering from back and wrist injuries, which reduced his service speed greatly.
Berrer had only taken four games in four sets off Nadal in their previous two meetings, but recognised his career’s greatest opportunity and in patches responded by raising his standards to new heights.
“It’s one of the matches which will stay in my memory for ever, but let’s be honest it was the first match for Rafa after injury,” he said.
“What I’ve learned from my studies for my sports psychology masters degree is to avoid thinking about these things,” he added when asked about dealing with the pressure of closing out a career-best win against a legend.
“In the first set, it felt like the other matches against him. Then it became easy to attack because it was the only chance I had.
“It’s also my last season and I had nothing to lose, and I’m enjoying it here – so why not?”
Berrer had plenty of time to think about answering that question, for he broke early in the final set and led 3-1, sometimes finding angles which perhaps only a fellow lefty could manage against Nadal.
The French Open champion almost broke back immediately, but a Hawkeye decision showed his ground stroke to have landed a millimetre beyond the baseline, and his only real chance after that came in the final game.
That saw Berrer slip to 15-40, only to produce two good first serves, and then go break back point down by delivering a double fault, before attacking the net on each of the last three points and finding Nadal unable to come up with any of those rasping passing shots for which he has become so renowned. It cost Nadal the title and cast doubts over his ability to make any sort of challenge for the Australian Open.
Earlier Novak Djokovic, who succeeded Nadal as world No1 in June, made a satisfactory start with a 6-1, 6-4 win over his Serbian compatriot Dusan Lajovic.
“I didn’t know during the last couple of days whether I would be able to play,” Djokovic said, referring to the fever he has had.
“So in the circumstances it was a very good start.”
Ito moves into second round of Chennai Open
Japan’s No2 Tatsuma Ito moved into the second round of the ATP Chennai Open with a straight-sets win over Indian wildcard Ramkumar Ramanathan.
The 87th-ranked Ito, playing for the first time in the southern Indian city, won 6-3, 6-3.
“It is good to start the year with a win, but I must play a consistent game to go forward,” said Ito, who next plays fifth seed Guillermo Garcia-Lopez of Spain. Garcia- Lopez overcame the loss in the tiebreaker of the first set to edge past qualifier Evgeny Donskoy of Russia 6-7 (3/7), 6-2, 6-3 in two hours.
Ruthless Sharapova eases past Shvedova
Top seed Maria Sharapova began her 2015 campaign in ruthless fashion as she brushed aside Yaroslava Shvedova 6-0, 6-1 in the second round of the Brisbane International.
Sharapova raced through the first set in just 23 minutes. Shvedova offered more resistance in the second but was no match for the world No2.
“It certainly felt good to start (well) after not playing a match for a couple of months,” Sharapova said. “Despite all the training, it’s such a different feeling to go out on the court and play in an actual match atmosphere.”
Kvitova proves too strong for Jovanovski
Czech world No4 Petra Kvitova thrashed Serbia’s Bojana Jovanovski 6-1, 6-2 in the second round of the Shenzhen Open yesterday.
The 24-year-old double Wimbledon winner broke Jovanovski twice in the first set. The Serbian, ranked 56, offered a little more resistance in the second set, earning three break points. But she failed to take any of them and Kvitova wrapped up the match.
Meanwhile, Zheng Saisai took nearly two hours to beat Slovenia’s Polona Hercog 6-3, 2-6, 6-2.
