Nadal's five-game winning streak in the Australian Open round of 32 will be a real test

Source: Sports Weekly

Facing German qualifier Hamfmann, who is only ranked 126th, 20-time Grand Slam winner Nadal scored three straight sets to reach the Australian Open men's singles round of 32 6-2, 6-3 and 6-4, and he also won five consecutive wins at the beginning of the season!

Although it seems to be a very concise and efficient score, it does not represent the hardship of the game, because there is not even a game of 5 in the end, and it takes more than 2 hours and 40 minutes! It can be seen that Nadal won this victory not as easy as the score showed. The reason it took so long was because in Hanfmann's serve, the two sides had a lot of even-point battles, and Nadal only cashed in four of his 16 break points.

"I've played him against Roland Garros before, so I know he's a very dangerous opponent," Nadal said after the match: "The last round he was able to beat Kokinakis was enough to see how good he was, he came all the way from qualifying and is already very familiar with the venue, he's a heavy gunner, very promising and today he's far better than the rankings show." ”

Indeed, as Nadal said, in the last round Hanfmann defeated the local darling Kokinakis, who just won his first career title in Adelaide last week, and also dropped three straight sets, so that the match between Nadal and Kokinakis expected by local audiences failed to make the match, which is enough to see how good the German player is, his success rate today is even 4 percentage points higher than Nadal's, and he has saved as many as 4 match points!

In addition, Hanfmann's aggressive flat shot also caused a lot of trouble for Nadal, forcing espanyol to expand his defensive range. In addition, Hanfmann also exploded as many as 30 winning points, completely equal to Nadal, with 32 unforced errors and only 6 more than Nadal, so this game is actually not as one-sided as the score shows, and Nadal still withstood some tests.

In terms of one-shot scoring rate, Nadal still led a lot of 76% to 61%, saving all two break points, and it seems that his defense of his own serve is still quite successful. Although five consecutive wins in the new season have been achieved, these five opponents are relatively low in ranking, except for the first round of the Australian Open opponent Geelong ranked 66th, the other four opponents are around 100, so for Nadal, the real test of this Australian Open may have to start from the third round.

In the third round, Nadal is likely to meet Tokyo Olympic runner-up and Russia's Khachanov, and if he can pass the level, the fourth round will encounter the winner between Hulkach and Karatsev; if he can go further, the quarterfinals are likely to meet the champion Zverev. The quarter-finals were a rather dangerous round for Nadal, having fallen to the quarterfinals at the Australian Open for the past two years, losing to Thiem and Tsitsipas respectively.

In addition, Nadal also stopped in the quarterfinals in 2010, 2011, 2015 and 2018, but once he can successfully cross the quarterfinals, he can successfully reach the finals, such as 2012, 2014, 2017 and 2019. So for Nadal, after five games of warm-up, the highlight of the 2022 Australian Open is just about to debut, and every game will be a good drama, can Nadal achieve double full slam and Grand Slam 21 crowns at this Australian Open? It depends on whether these opponents agree or not.