Nadal discounts another round

"

What's going on?

" What the hell is going on?

Rafael Nadal wondered when, with 5-4 and 15-0 in the second set, he was about to serve to close the sleeve and a middle-aged fan started making such a fuss that the referee had to stop the match.

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It resumed, but the Spanish stopped again and the woman, it is unknown why, rude and recidivist, got up and dedicated a comb to the entire line, several personalized for Nadal.

He went from disbelief to laughter, and with that bomb-proof armored mind that he has - "honestly, I don't want to know what he was saying ...", he pointed out as soon as he finished - he put the clasp to the partial with three direct points with the take off, in the middle of a surreal scene that ended with the security personnel inviting the viewer out and that has already gone around the world.

"

Let's play

".

Let's play.

At the end, 6-1, 6-4 and 6-2, in 1h 44m.

The sculpted, multi-ethnic Michael Mmoh, a flag jigsaw who was born in Riyadh and has an Australian passport, but competes under the stars and stripes of America, gave Nadal exactly what he needed: time.

The champion of 20 majors, who participated for the second time in the tournament with his back between cottons, took another step and discounted another round;

that is, one more day, one less rival.

And to continue taking care of that lumbar area that he played a trick on him two weeks ago and is still there, latent according to the Balearic Islands.

In any case, in front of Mmoh, the roof closed in the plant, he was not noticed in the least and he signed another palliative victory that allows him to cross out another date from the calendar.

Mmoh, 177th in the world, he didn't have much to lose, but he still came out fearful and took refuge in the deep end, opening a space paradise for a Nadal who appreciated the courtesy and began to exercise.

Again content, practically without forcing to avoid any setback, the Balearic Islands have been worth so far with that version of minimums to dispatch defenseless adversaries like the North American.

At 27 minutes he had already closed the first set, with a couple of

breaks

to the fourth and sixth game, and after the bizarre episode of the break and the comb, he was comfortably spinning the victory that leads him to a pulse against the British Cameron Norrie , the 69th of the ATP.

Mmoh, soft in the competitive despite the big body, took a little step forward, but it was of no use.

With the autopilot, finer with the backhand than with the right, Nadal offered more than correct percentages in the night session —84% with first and 56% with second, 40 winners and almost full on the net (15/16) - and left the

odd passing

brand of the house;

He accelerated to obtain the breaks of the third set (3-2 and 5-2) and thus, without greater shock than the one in the stands, comfortable from start to finish, he again gained another dose of time that tastes like gold.

On Saturday, he says, the test will be much more definitive and can mark his future in the remainder of the tournament.

"I'M PULLING, BUT IT'S NOT ENOUGH"

Nadal commented in the conference room on the incident that marked the night.

“It was for me, for me!

Not for the referee ... ”, he commented to a close friend before talking to journalists.

“I don't know what he was telling me.

I just saw him yelling at me and raising his finger ... But I'm not worried.

I am a professional and I am here to accept the things that are happening on the track, "he said then, taking the issue away.

“They have fired her because she had earned it.

It has deconcentrated me between services, and it has also hurt my rival, "he added.

"Too much gin or tequila, perhaps", he had previously attributed, at the foot of the track.

Regarding his sensations and the state of his back, the Spaniard said that the improvement is slow, not the desired one.

“I'm serving with a much less aggressive gesture, my average speed is lower than usual.

I'm getting cut and at the moment it's working for me ”, he continued;

“By making a relaxed gesture I was able to go pulling but, with all due respect for my rival, the party has not demanded more of me either.

But I know that it is not enough for my purpose here.

At the moment it is going away, but the evolution is not as satisfactory as I would like ”.

In the hands of the doctors who treat him in Melbourne - in contact with Ángel Ruiz Cotorro, his personal doctor, who this time has not traveled to Australia - Nadal is confident that there will be a "click" that will change things.

“What is in my power, I am doing well.

I could not allow mistakes or extend the game, and this has been achieved ”, he valued.

"But a high-level rival is coming.

I don't pretend to be perfect, but I need to feel better, "he said.

Before Norrie, he demands a jump from his body, because otherwise, "if we don't get an improvement tomorrow [on Saturday] with the treatments that we are going to try, we will already be in a more extreme situation," the Spaniard closed.