Rafael Nadal had to dig deep in his opening match at the China Open in Beijing, where he had to save two match points to battle past Lucas Pouille 4-6 7-6 (8-6) 7-5 after 2 hours and 31 minutes. Nadal was playing his first match on the ATP Tour since his 16th career Grand Slam triumph in the US Open final last month, although he helped Team Europe win the first edition of the Laver Cup in Prague.
Pouille earned the first break of the match in the fifth game of the first set. Nadal hit an ace on Pouille’s set point but the Frenchman served it out in the next game.
Pouille missed an early break point chance in the second set. He fended off three break points in the eiighth game.
Nadal went down 4-6 in the second set tie-break, but bounced back by winning four consecutive points to force the match to the third set after Pouille hit a forehand into the net.
The Frenchman fought for every point in the third set and earned a 5-4 lead but dropped 12 of the last 13 points of the match. As the decisive set looked to be heading to another tie-break, Nadal held his nerve in the most decisive moments of the match and converted his only break in the 11th game before serving out for the win to 15 in the next game.
Pouille had clinched his most recent head-to-head match in the fourth round at the US Open last year in a five-set battle
Nadal will take on either Next Gen player Karen Khachanov or Chinese wild card Di Wu.
Juan Martin Del Potro edged past Uruguay’s Pablo Cuevas 7-6 (7-4) 6-4. Del Potro saved the only break point he faced in the opening game with his forehand. Cuevas fended off a break point in the 10th game with his forehand. The tie-break went on serve until 5-4 with no tie-breaks. Del Potro won two points on Cuevas’ serve to get two mini-breaks for 7-4. The player from Tandil got an early break in the first game of the second set. Del Potro rallied from 15-40 down in the 10th game to convert his second match point.
“I think I am fresh. I just came from home, so I am strong to play the tournament. To have Dimitrov in the second round is not easy for me. He is one of the favourites to win the tournament. It could be a quarter final, semifinal or the final match, but tomorrow I have to be ready for the challenge”, said Del Potro.
Del Potro set up a third-round match against Grigor Dimitrov, who battled back Damir Dzumhur 6-1 3-6 6-3. Dimitrov saved a break point in the opening game but did not convert three chances. Dimitrov broke three times to cruise through to 6-1. Dzumhur saved a break point at 3-3 before breaking serve for the first time in the match in the eighth game. The player from Bosnia Herzegovina served out for the set in the next game. Dzumhur earned three break points at the start of the decider but Dimitrov held his nerve and saved them. The winner of the St.Petersburg title did not convert two break points in the fifth game. Dimitrov got the crucial break in the eighth game and served out for the match with an ace.
Nick Kyrgios cruised past Nikoloz Basilashvili 6-1 6-2 in under an hour. The Australian player broke twice to race out to a 5-0 lead and served out for the set with a crosscourt backhand on his first set point. Kyrgios got two breaks of serve in the fifth and seventh games and converted his first match point with an ace to close out the second set 6-2.
John Isner cruised through to a 6-2 6-3 win over Tunisian qualifier Malek Jaziri.
Tomas Berdych overcame Jared Donaldson 6-3 0-6 6-2 setting up a second round match against Russian Next Gen player Andrey Rublev, who came back from one set down to edge Jack Sock 3-6 6-1 6-2. Rublev converted four of his six break points in the final two sets. Sock dropped all the four break points he faced in the second set.
