World No.3 Rafael Nadal admits that he still has a way to go before he is at his best form after crashing out in the third round of the Citi Open.
The top seed fell 6-1, 4-6, 6-4, to South Africa’s Lloyd Harris in what was only his second match after taking a two-month break from the sport. Nadal dropped serve just twice but crucially one of those occurred when he was serving 4-5 down in the final set. Overall he hit a total of eight aces which was half the amount of what his opponent produced.
“All the credit to him that he played aggressive,” Nadal said of Harris. “He played well. He was brave. So, well done.”
This week is the first tournament the 35-year-old has played in since the French Open in June. He has been absent from the Tour due to a foot injury which at one stage sidelined him from playing for 20 days. In his first match at the Citi Open earlier in the week, he survived a marathon three-set encounter against Jack Sock. Despite his latest loss, Nadal is focusing on the positives.
“The most positive thing is my foot was better today than yesterday, so that’s the best news possible,” he said. “I played against a player that played well. For the moment, I think I played better than yesterday, but in the third when I had opportunities, the truth is his serve was huge and I played this last game really badly.”
Harris is the first player to defeat Nadal in his first Tour meeting since Denis Shapovalov in 2017. It is only the second time in his career he has defeated a top 10 player after Dominic Thiem. The South African is currently at a ranking high of 50th in the world.
It is the first time this season the Spaniard has failed to win back-to-back matches in an ATP Tournament. His focus now switches to next week’s Toronto Open where he will be the second seed behind Daniil Medvedev where he is hoping to improve his game further.
“I was able to move a bit better, so that is very important, especially for me personally, to keep enjoying the sport and keep having energy, believing that important things are possible,” Nadal said. “And then I need to keep improving. It’s true. I honestly didn’t have two easy months. I had a lot of problems with my foot. I was not able to practise all the days that I really wanted, but I did as much as I could and I tried hard here.”
Should Nadal win the Toronto title he would tie Novak Djokovic for the most Masters titles won (36). He is already a five-time winner of the tournament.
As for Harris, he will play Japan’s Kei Nishikori in the quarter-finals on Friday. He is one of only three seeded players remaining in the draw along with Jannik Sinner and John Millman.
