September 2nd 2015,
By MJ
Under the summer heat at day 3 of the US Open, Nadal’s 2nd round match was against the 23 year old Argentinean. Their previous meeting Nadal won easily 6-2 6-2. Today Nadal did not have as smooth a day as the 9-time French Open champion overcame a series of difficulties to beat the world number 74, 7-6(5), 6-3, 7-5.
Schwartzman was aggressive from the very start, moving Nadal around side to side before going down the line to win points. On his own first service game however, he played nervous and immediately gifted Nadal the break to go up 2-0. For his part, the lefty Spanaird was quite sluggish himself throughout the match, hitting the slice a lot more on the backhand side as he tried to ease himself into the zone. He was able to hit his heavy topspin forehand forcing Schwartzman to take every ball early. With his 5′ 7″ stature, it often meant making contact around shoulder height for the underdog. He was able to maintain his timing despite such difficulty. In the long rallies, he actually prevailed in the majority with an unforced error from Nadal. Therein was the issue however. For every break point he fought so hard to earn, Schwartzman was unable to convert. As Nadal held his service games, the set seemed over at 5-2. Then the inexplicable happened.
Almost in the blink of an eye, Nadal found his nervous self to get the better of him, and soon it was level at 5-5. Despite missing a couple routine forehands, he managed to hold at love to go up 6-5. The unforced errors continued to pile up, however, and thus the set went to tiebreak. With a bunch of close points, Nadal finally was a gifted set point off a missed volley from Schwartzman, who berated himself more and more between points. Nadal took quick advantage with a big forehand winner to secure the first set 7-6 (5), but it certainly could have gone either way. As the year’s results have established already, the 14 time Grand Slam Champion has yet to discover his old form.
At the beginning of the 2nd set, Schwartzman stuck to the game plan and stayed aggressive, breaking for an early 2-0 lead. This became a true test for Nadal, who also experienced similar struggles in his first round match against Coric. He chose to rise to the occasion, however, and takes the 2nd set 6-3. Again, the score was a lot closer than it indicated. In most of the rallies Schwartzman showed his defiance by staying close to the baseline and timing the ball well, often leaping to hit his groundstrokes as the ball kicked up.
By the beginning of the third set, the sun had started to set, and so the chances of an upset as well. Unbeknowst to the Argetinean, Nadal has a perfect record when up 2 sets to none at Grand Slam events. Not before some hitches however. In the 5th game, Nadal fought back from 0-30 to even it at 30-30, but Schwartzman stayed his aggressive course and made a service return winner for yet another break point. This time, Nadal pushed his forehand long to squander the game, and the lead. It was then he chose to get to work, and soon Schwartzman was down 4-5 serving to stay in the match. He held to level the set at 5-5, a deja vu from 2 sets ago. The inverse relationship of his first serve percentage and Nadal’s first serve speed proved to be the deciding factor in this set: Nadal went for bigger and bigger, with a few serves in the 120 mph range while Diego struggled to win points off his own serve. Nadal comes away with a straight set win, or escaped rather. For his next match, the escape may prove to be even tougher against Fabio Fognini, which remains to be seen. Vamos!
