Against Rafael Nadal, everyone knows, it’s not enough to be equal. You have to be able to do it over time. Adrian Mannarino again paid to learn it, Sunday January 23, in the round of 16 of the Australian Open. Heroic in the first round, where he took the Spaniard to an unbreathable tie-break, the Frenchman finally gave in in this decisive game. From then on, it was almost over. Touched in his head, and above all physically bruised, Mannarino gradually disappeared from circulation to open a royal road to Nadal (7-6, 6-2, 6-2).
With hindsight, Adrian Mannarino will surely think that there was perhaps room to win this first round and make Nadal doubt. With his atypical game, all flat and on the counter, he had already played the shot perfectly tactically against the brute force of the Taurus of Manacor. To the great lifts of the left-hander, the Frenchman responded with kicks that made the Rod Laver Arena roar with pleasure, very happy to attend this opposition of style rather than a Spanish one-man show.
An opposition so balanced that it could only end in a tie-break. Impeccable accuracy and abnegation, Mannarino will save 5 set points there. But he will also miss 4 in his favor… And, after a decisive game of almost half an hour, it was finally the man with 20 Grand Slams who ended up using his experience to win. 16 points to 14!
Pick your jaw up off the floor…@Rafael Nadal clinches the first set in an EPIC cat and mouse tiebreak 7-6(14).
Get that popcorn in a bowl, STAT. #AusOpen · #AO2022 pic.twitter.com/mFo7XHfGIl
— #AusOpen (@AustralianOpen) January 23, 2022
The loss of this first set, unfortunately for Mannarino, sounded like a swan song. Visibly affected in the adductors and certainly blunted by his last match against Karatsvev, which ended at 2:30 a.m. local time in the previous round, the 69th in the world picked up quickly. At the same time, Rafael Nadal, seeing his prey bend the spine, gave a layer to detach himself irreparably.
By cutting half of his backhands, he considerably hampered the Habs, unable to rely on these fleeing balls and was quietly propelling itself to the 14th quarter-final of its career in Melbourne. Without having tapped into its reserves and having the satisfaction of having won a tie-break of anthology. The Spaniard will face Denis Shapovalov, surprise winner of Alexander Zverev (6-3, 7-6, 6-3).