The third round of the Madrid Masters '24 ended with a high-profile contest. Nadal and Kachin battled for three hours to decide the winner, but Nadal refused to be reversed and won 6-1, 7-6(5), 6-3 to advance to the round of 16. In the next round, Nadal will face No.30 seed Leheczka, who 6-4, 7-6(7) Monteiro.
In the first set, Nadal showed good competitive form, breaking serve three times to take a 6-1 lead, and in the second set, Nadal was in crisis, breaking serve twice and falling behind 1-4. Although Nadal then chased all the way to a 6-6 tie and chased from 1-4 to 5-5 in the tie-break, he was still won by his opponent with a high-quality return serve.
The deciding set followed the same pattern as the second, except that the positions of the two sides changed, with Nadal tied at 2-2 after a 2-0 start, and then broke back-to-back to take a 4-2 lead. Fortunately, Nadal stabilized his position, reflecting the composure of the 37-year-old veteran at the critical moment, and won the game 6-3.
In this game, Nadal's outstanding performance directly convinced Kachin, and even made him go directly to Nadal's side after the game and ask for the jersey, which also happened to be captured by the TV camera. "It's a dream come true to play against you, can you give me a jersey of yours?" Nadal gave him a jersey from his lounge chair and hugged him after celebrating.
Kachin can be said to be Nadal's little fan, and in an interview with the media before the match, he said, "Playing against Nadal has always been my goal in life, I have been watching him since he played the French Open for the first time, I remember watching him play on TV on Sunday final, and now it is finally my turn." "I'm definitely going to face this fight with a lot of fear and I want something out of it. ”
As Kachin said, he was a bit overwhelmed by Nadal's face in this match, especially after taking a 4-1 lead in the second set. When the score was tied, Kachin was able to play freely again. Not only in the second set, but also in the deciding set, he was prone to nervousness when the score was approaching. This may be the standard state of the little fan when he meets an idol. Kachin, who had suffered 15 straight defeats in all competitions before Madrid, reversed his run in the first two rounds to win over Ofner and Tiafoe in order to meet his idol.
In fact, this is not the first time Nadal and Kachin have met. In Buenos Aires in 15 years, Nadal trained with Kacin before the tournament, when Nadal was ranked No. 3 in the world, and Kacin was No. 243, and now Kacin is ranked No. 91 in the world, and Nadal was ranked No. 512 before the game, but with the round of 16 of the Madrid Masters, the ranking has soared 292 places to 220.