Rafael Nadal rolled back the years to claim an emotional and dramatic victory against Alex de Minaur at the Mutua Madrid Open on Saturday. The home favourite showed flashes of his vintage best in a statement second-round win to thrill his home fans in a 7-6 (7-6) 6-3 victory.
Nadal reversed a straight-sets defeat in Barcelona against the Australian with an inspired performance at the Caja Magica in front of the King of Spain and Real Madrid stars present and former in Vinicius Junior and Zinedine Zidane. After breaking the De Minaur serve in the second game, he was furious when the umpire ruled he had not challenged in time in the next game with a shot over the baseline from the Australian missed by the officials. De Minaur broke back and briefly had the advantage at 4-3 but back came Nadal, and the home favourite finally took a fifth chance in the tie-break after being pegged back from 6-2. He celebrated with a triple fist pump and began the second set on the front foot, producing some vintage winners and keeping De Minaur scrambling around the court.
By the end of the match, Nadal was in total control and he clinched his first top-20 victory since 2022 when De Minaur double-faulted, sparking jubilant scenes in the Spanish capital. As whether the old Rafa Nadal back, the Spaniard replied: “No, not yet. Next time! Today, I showed a good level of tennis and I was able to do positive things.”
“I’m super happy to be able to be competitive against a great player like Alex, playing over two hours, it means a lot to me and the atmosphere here is just a joke.”
“If I am able to play weeks in a row, then I’m going to see how far I can go and how competitive I could be. That’s not the case yet, step by step and let’s see how I recover.”
Nadal will next face Argentina’s Pedro Cachin, who defeated Frances Tiafoe 7-6 (7-1) 3-6 6-4. In other matches, Brazilian qualifier Thiago Monteiro produced the upset of the tournament so far after he downed in-form Stefanos Tsitsipas 6-4 6-4 with a stunning second-round performance. World No 1 Iga Swiatek advanced to the fourth round after defeating Romania’s Sorana Cirstea 6-1 6-1 to improve her season record to 26-4. Jannik Sinner downed fellow Italian Lorenzo Sonego 6-0 6-3 in the second round to improve to 5-0 against his countryman and 13-0 against fellow Italian players.
