Alejandro Davidovich from Malaga gave in to the Pole Hubert Hurkacz (6-4, 4-6, 7-6(5)) in the round of 32 of the Masters 1,000 of Madrid. The small but vibrant court 3 of the Caja Mágica served up a beautiful fight that could not end with a happy ending for the tennis player from La Cala del Moral.
The match could not have had a more even ending, as was the rest of the match. The duel began with each player winning his services, until the rain made an appearance in Madrid again and the clash had to stop for a few minutes. The break did not sit well with the man from Malaga, who gave up his serve after the break and ended up losing the first round 6-4.
The cornerback knew how to react and took the second set. He broke Hurkacz’s serve on two occasions and went up 5-2 and served to close the set, but the Pole was not going to make it so easy either and, with a break and another game on serve, he put pressure on the Spaniard, putting the 5 -4 on the scoreboard. Davidovich’s pulse did not shake and he was able to close the set (6-4).
The third and final set had to decide which player advanced to the round of 16. With 5-4 against, Davidovich was able to save a match point and win his serve to cling to the match, which finally had its epilogue in the tie break. Davidovich went on to lead 4-3 in the tie-break, but in the decisive moments Hurkacz made fewer mistakes and was more assertive to take the victory after prevailing 7-5 in the tie-break.
The Malaga tennis player he was absent due to fatigue in Barcelona and neither in Estoril nor now Madrid has managed to follow his progression with the final he signed in Monte Carlo.
Nadal advances to the round of 16
For his part, Rafael Nadal returned to competition six weeks after the crack he suffered in his ribs with a victory in the second round of the Mutua Madrid Open, where he beat Serbian Miomir Kecmanovic in two sets (6-1 and 7-6( 4)).
The Balearic added his twenty-first victory of a season in which he has already accumulated three successes. The Australian Open, the Melbourne tournament and Acapulco.
A rib injury kept him out of fourth, in the final of the Masters 1000 in Indian Wells, last March, just when he was aiming for the trophy in the duel against the American Taylor Fritz.
In his staging, he beat Kecmanovic, a promising player who in his last tournaments this year always reached, at least, the quarterfinals and who improved in the second set, after the resumption of a game that was interrupted for half an hour due to the rain.
Nadal took an hour and 55 minutes to make his debut at the Mutua Madrid Open, which he has won five times.