United States Open | Ruthless Rafael Nadal with Richard Gasquet

(New York) Rafael Nadal, after two bumpy first laps, picked up the pace at the United States Open on Saturday, making Richard Gasquet suffer a long ordeal, to join the 8^e of the final, imitated by the phenomenon Carlos Alcaraz and the world No. 1 Iga Swiatek.

Spaniard, 3^e world, won 6-0, 6-1, 7-5, inflicting on his favorite victim his 18^e defeat in as many confrontations. The heaviest also in Grand Slam, the level of that which the Frenchman had conceded at Roland-Garros in 2015 against Novak Djokovic (6-1, 6-2, 6-3).

And again, if Gasquet was able to score six games in this meeting, it was at the cost of a last stand in the third set, during which he finally let go of his shots.

Nadal, who finally saw a little adversity manifest itself, made sure not to let Gasquet have hopes of a comeback, after his break at 2-2. A hooked sleeve, ultimately more useful than the two previous ones in terms of fine-tuning the settings.

“My best game”

“It’s my best match of the tournament, there have been a lot of improvements, I’ve raised my level of play, it’s important,” said the Mallorcan, who wants to bring his record of Grand Prix titles to 23. Slam and will have for opponent in the next round the American Frances Tiafoe (26^e), scorer of Argentinian Diego Schwartzman (16^e).

Another satisfaction: he was in no way bothered by his nose, injured Thursday evening by his racket after an unfortunate rebound. “He’s a little bigger than usual, but he’s still there, okay,” he joked.

At 6-0, 3-0, Gasquet, supported by the public who felt he was in distress, ended up winning his first game, raising his arms in a cross to the ovation of the public.

But he committed too many unforced errors (29), and was too delicate with his serve (7 double faults in total and 57% of first serves) to worry Nadal, who quietly won the next five games to lead two sets. to nil and come off 2-0 in the third.

But this time, Gasquet picked up, managing to take his opponent’s serve. And he finally stood up to the 36-year-old Mallorcan, until the latter managed the decisive break to lead 6-5 and serve to win the match.

Gasquet, also 36, reached the last four at Flushing Meadows in 2013 but hasn’t made it past the third round since 2018.

The two players have known each other since they were 12 years old. But on the main circuit, Nadal has always clearly dominated Gasquet: in total, they have played 47 rounds and the Frenchman has won only 4, the last in 2008.