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Rafael Nadal victory over Taro at the Us Open 2017

Seeking his third US Open title, top seed Nadal opened his tournament with a 7-6 6-2 6-2 victory over Serbian Lajovic under the closed Arthur Ashe roof on Tuesday. It wasn’t the most convincing of performances form the Spaniard, but he overcame a slow beginning to finish strongly and secure his passage into the second round. An aggressive Lajovic served for the opening set at 5-4, but Nadal called on his legendary powers of recovery to break the Serbian to love before forcing the set into a tie break. The Spaniard took control of the breaker with two mini-breaks, but he uncharacteristically surrendered his lead as Lajovic got back both mini-breaks to even things at 5-5. A tight Nadal then blew a set point with a double fault at 6-5, but the Spaniard regrouped to win the next two points to dig out the opening set.

Nadal hit 33 winners in his victory over Lajovic, but he also made 34 unforced error- a negative ratio rarely associated with Nadal. The Spaniard attributed his early struggles to nerves, but he is confident of getting better as the tournament progresses.
Today I didn’t play at that high level, but just like this, important thing is I won, and I have one more day to keep practicing and another chance to play better the next day, no?  It is normal that you have some nerves at the beginning and you get a little bit tight at the beginning of the tournament. So I am confident I am ready to play much better than what I did today, and I believe that I gonna do it.Today was a match that I won, and I have another chance the next day. I need to be ready for that, and I hope to be ready for that, because I really worked a lot.
That next match is against New York-born Japanese, Taro Daniel, who recovered from two-sets-to-one down to beat American, Tommy Paul in his opening round on Wednesday. The 24-year-old Daniel has never been beyond the second round of a Grand Slam, and his only previous US Open main draw appearance was in 2014, when he lost to Milos Raonic in the opening round, having come through the qualifiers.

 

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