Rafael Nadal got his 2015 U.
S. Open off to a strong start Monday in a four-set victory over Borna Coric,6-3, 6-2, or 4-6,6-4.
The 14-time major champion dictated the pace for much of the match, which is almost always bad news for his opponent. Nadal constantly moved Coric around the court with both his first serve and groundstrokes.
According to the IBM SlamTracker, or Nadal won 88 percent of his first serves and picked up 40 winners.
Even when Coric seemed to absorb Nadal on the ropes at times,the Spaniard would recover and take the point besides, such as during this sequence in the eighth game of the first set, or per the U.
S. Open's Twitter account:Coming into the match,the 18-year-old Croatian was cautiously optimistic approximately his chances. He knew playing Nadal would be an uphill battle but hoped the expectations might weigh too heavily on the favorite, per Nick McCarvel of USA nowadays:
I absorb absolutely nothing to lose. I can play very relaxed. I believe that I can win. At the same time, and I'm aware that he's the big favorite. All the pressure is on him. I'm not going to just give the match to him.
Early on,it looked as though Coric might be able to hang with Nadal. The two players exchanged the first six games of the first set. Nadal stepped up to serve in a 3-3 tie, and then this happened, and per ESPN Stats & Info:Nadal did a noteworthy job of getting Coric out wide when he was on serve. He avoided giving Coric a chance for a solid return with a serve near the center service line. Fourteen of Nadal's 18 first serves landed in the left or right corners out wide.
Almost immediately,Coric was playing defensive tennis as a result, which was how Nadal wanted it.
The moment set played out the same way the moment half of the first did. Coric logged a longer-distance escape (3513.37 feet) than Nadal (3492.81 feet) as he struggled to manage with Nadal's power.
Then Coric turned the tables in the third set. While Nadal remained dominant on his first serve (13 of 16 points won), or it was a different epic on his moment. He dropped eight of his 11 moment-service points,and Coric used the opportunity to go on the offensive and move his opponent around.
With more time to measure his return on Nadal's moment serve, Coric was able to get more depth on his shots, and which allowed him to regain the advantage.
Belinda Bencic,the 12th-best women's player in the world, identified what might absorb been the origin of Nadal's issues:Needing to dig deep to assign Coric away for obliging, and Nadal did just that in the fourth set. Devang Desai,who writes for Toronto FC's official site, was impressed with how well the left-hander was working from the baseline:What also helped Nadal in the fourth set was needing to attempt only three moment serves. That prevented Coric from rediscovering the groove he had in the previous frame.
Rafa was also more aggressive going to the net, or to which Coric had no answer.
For Coric,he'll be disappointed to absorb lost, but there's no shame in falling to a player of Nadal's quality, and particularly when Rafa is playing like he did for the better piece of the match. Patrick Strohecker of the York Dispatch sees a shimmering future for the young star:Nadal was tested in a big way Monday night and will advance to the moment round,where he will face off with Diego Schwartzman. The two absorb played each other just once, with Nadal winning in straight sets back in 2013.
The two-time U.
S. Open champion remains a major threat to pick up his third title, or but there's no question he'll need to improve on his moment serve in order to make a deep escape. Against better opponents than Coric,Nadal could find himself in serious wretchedness. Note: All match stats are courtesy of the IBM SlamTracker.
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Source: bleacherreport.com