19.09.2020
16:08
The Peque took the first set with a 6-2 against the Spanish, nine times champion of this tournament and current defender of the crown
September 19, 2020 Share on FacebookShare Share on TwitterTweet Share on WhatsAppShare
Diego Schwartzman faces Nadal in the quarterfinals of the Masters 1000 in Rome (Photo: Reuters)
Diego Schwartzman and Rafael Nadal define the last ticket to the semifinals of the Masters 1000 in Rome: they are 6-2 and 3-3 at the moment .
The Argentine stayed with the first set with a 6-2 thanks to a solid performance and with a statistical data that graphs his level: the first break he made from the Spanish serve he did with a 0-40 . In total, he doubled Nadal’s serve twice during that set and lifted a break against with the duel 1-2 against.
The second set started with two break chances, but there he couldn’t do much and Nadal started out winning. The character show in the next game by lifting a break against to level the start at 1-1.
The Rome Masters 1000 draw will have as its first semifinal the duel between Serbian Novak Djokovic and Norwegian Casper Ruud . The winner of this match will meet Canadian Denis Shapovalov .
El Peque , current owner of the 15th place in the world ranking, He arrived at this stage after beating Australian John Millman (6-4 and 7-6) in his debut. Then he left the Polish Hubert Hurkacz (3-6, 6-2 and 6-4) on the road. His rival on this occasion, who came to the tournament with 200 days of inactivity, had triumphed against his compatriot Pablo Carrreño Busta (6-1 and 6-1) and against Serbian Dusan Lajovic (6-1 and 6-3).
It should be noted that it is the third tournament since the restart of the pandemic for the 28-year-old Argentine tennis player after the Masters 1000 in Cincinnati (eliminated in the second round by local Reilly Opelka), the US Open (he said goodbye in his presentation after falling to Britain’s Cameron Norrie) and Kitzbuhel’s ATP 250 (lost in the quarterfinals to Laslo Djere).
Rafa arrived at this presentation as the number 2 in the world at 34 years old and without official activity in the restart of the pandemic . His last time was the Acapulco ATP 500 title in February of this year.
Not a minor detail: the history between the two indicates that Nadal has a resounding 9-0 advantage in his favor. The last time they had seen each other up to this point was in the Davis Cup quarterfinals , when the Mallorca-born beat him 6-1 and 6-2. That had been the third of their matches in 2019 , as they also met in the quarterfinals of the US Open (6-4, 7-5 and 6-2) and at the Indian Wells Masters 1000 (6-3 and 6 -one).
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