Tie-break of Nadal and Mannarino is the main thriller of January: 30 points, 29 minutes and 5 shots in the air from Rafa after the victory

But Zverev lost.

John McEnroe knows how to tie-break – he won in the end one of the greatest in history with Bjorn Borg in the 1980 Wimbledon final (here is video , great show). And McEnroe said that the tie-break of the first set of the 1/8 finals Australian Open between Rafael Nadal and

Adrian Mannarino

is in the top 10 in history.

A little prelude.

Mannarino, his previous match who finished at half past three in the night, played the first set almost perfectly and looked stronger than Nadal in the game.

• Rafa couldn’t adapt to his serve in any way – especially in the second square, when the left-hander Adrian got up to the sideline on the first ball to set the corner sharper.

• Moreover, even on the second pitch of Mannarino – not very strong – Nadal had problems, and for some reason he sent the reception out of bounds over and over again.

• In the rallies the Frenchman dominated due to discreet aggression. All his punches are not that very strong – but so flat, unpleasant in direction and deep that Rafa was knocked out of position over and over again.

• And Nadal with great difficulty I found the depth and density of blows in order to somehow resist this. Especially if he didn’t have the first serve.

Now to the main action.

Nadal immediately gave a point on his serving, but with a score of 2:4 he bounced back – when he was finally able to invest in the reception of the second ball.

Further, Rafa quickly won two points on his serve, and with a score of 5 :4 created such a circling miracle that brought him two set points.

— #AusOpen (@AustralianOpen) January 23, 2022

Mannarino played the first set point with a serve, and the second – with an attack on the Spaniard’s second serve.

Next are the most interesting moments.

7:7 – everyone saw what problems Mannarino’s backhand created for Nadal. The Frenchman punches almost without a swing, and it was hard for Rafa to read this blow – he had to guess. Sometimes he didn’t guess.

9:8 – Nadal starts using a new tactic: he cuts a lot from backhand to Mannarino’s backhand, keeps the ball lower, so that it would be inconvenient for the Frenchman to attack. This allows Rafa to start the attack, but Adrian somehow miraculously breaks the forehand into the rear edge of the back line. , Nadal did not read, he accepted gently, and Mannarino carefully transferred to the empty part of the court.

11:12 – Mannarino’s set point, Nadal shortened it badly, but read the opponent’s attack and translated from the backhand to an empty court.

12:13 – Mannarino had another set point, Nadal was under pressure, but restored the position with cut backhands, and then captured it with two forehands.

13:14 – Nadal wins back the fourth set point with a missed serve. No drama!

14:14 – Rafa’s new tactic kicks in again, backhand cutters squeeze out a mistake.

15 :14 – Nadal miraculously gnaws out the draw. After the match, he said that at the end of the tie-break he was lucky – and indeed Mannarino’s decision to punch directly into him cannot be called otherwise.

— Eurosport.es (@Eurosport_ES)

January 23, 2022

As a result, the tie-break lasted 28 minutes 40 seconds and became the longest in Nadal’s very long career. Rafa was so happy that he hit the air as many as five times! becomes very difficult. He didn’t move so clearly anymore, didn’t invest so much in the ball, and this hit his game hard. And Nadal, on the contrary, was inspired and began to play more bitingly and aggressively. reached the quarter-finals of the Grand Slam.

And there he is waiting for not the most stable player of the second half of 2021 Alexander Zverev , a Denis Shapovalov. The German on Sunday was very lethargic and passive, while Denis, on the contrary, played a very high-quality match, demonstrated stable and controlled aggression and crushed world number 3. He was especially good at the net.

S & V – Shapo & volley 🎾 @denis_shapo

· #AusOpen · #AO2022🎥: @wwos · @espn · @eurosport · @wowowtennis pic.twitter.com/4ttE0VJAMy

— #AusOpen (@AustralianOpen) January 23, 2022

Nadal will also simply not be with Shapovalov – when they met on clay in Rome last year, Denis had two match points. And in December, he beat Rafa at an exhibition tournament in Abu Dhabi.

Mini-Nadal Alcaraz catches up with Rafa in terms of muscle. And he is tormenting the tops with might and main – on Friday for 4 hours he fought with No. 7 in the world

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Photo:
Gettyimages.ru

/Quinn Rooney