The completion of second round action in Spain and Nadal took to the court for his first hit.
Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell - an ATP 500 category tournament, on Red Clay, in Barcelona, Spain, 22-28 April 2019.
Defending champion:
Rafa Nadal (1) who defeated Stefanos Tsitsipas 6-2 6-1
Second round
- Rafa Nadal (1) v Leonardo Mayer
Never having lost consecutive matches on clay, an extraordinary record, Nadal was determined not to wreck it against the Argentine today. Still hurting from his loss to Fognini in the Monte Carlo semi final, the Spaniard entered Barcelona with a tournament record of 59 wins and 3 losses, enabling him to take home 11 trophies from here.
Nadal boasted a 5-0 head to head record against Mayer coming into the match, the last win in the 2018 Australian Open. In fact the last three victories have come in Grand Slam tournaments, the others 2017 US Open and 2014 Roland Garros.
The first six games went to serve, Nadal winning 12 points to 6, but not as dominant from the line as Mayer with 12-3. However, that’s when Nadal turned the screw and won eight of the nine next points to lead 5-3 and serve for the set.
This he failed to do, and when a set point arrived at 4-5 30-40 on the Mayer delivery, Nadal bashed a forehand into the net. A tie break would resolve the matter.
Nadal saw two more set points disappear, at 6 points to 5 on his own serve, and 7 to 6 on his opponents serve.
Mayer took the first opportunity coming his way, when Nadal served at 7-8. A forehand winner converted the debut set point from Argentina, and Mayer led 7-6(7). This was only the second ever set taken by Mayer against Nadal.
Nadal responded, as expected, by breaking Mayer in the opening game of set two. Mayer wasted a bunch of game points in the third game, and even had to save a break point. After five deuces, he held on. Nadal was comfortable on serve until the eighth game where he avoided the only break point he faced for the set, which he won 6-4.
At 30-30 in the fifth game of the decider, the top seed struck successive winners to break the Argentine. In the next Mayer service game the match was effectively over following a Spanish forehand down the line which confirmed another break, changing the score to 5-2 and handing Nadal the opportunity to serve for the match.
Rafa Nadal won 6-7(3) 6-4 6-2, but it was more of a work out than expected.
- Wildcard David Ferrer defeated Lucas Pouille (15) 6-3 6-1
- Benoit Paire defeated Pablo Carreno Busta (12) 6-4 6-7(9) 6-1
- Guido Pella defeated Karen Khachanov (6) 6-2 7-6(4)
- Lucky loser Roberto Carballes Baena defeated wildcard Nicola Kuhn 6-7(4) 6-4 6-2
- Christian Garín defeated Denis Shapovalov (9) 7-5 6-2
- Felix Auger-Aliassime (16) defeated Malek Jaziri 6-3 7-6(7)
- Daniil Medvedev (7) defeated qualifier Albert Ramos-Viñolas 6-3 2-6 6-1
- Mackenzie McDonald defeated Gilles Simon (11) 6-3 6-2
- Wildcard Grigor Dimitrov (13) defeated Fernando Verdasco 6-2 6-7(4) 6-3
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