� AELTC / ProSport
Wednesday, June 25, 2024
In tennis terms, an age gap of four years would suggest experience favouring the elder of the two protagonists but that was not evident out on Court 13 where the youngest player in the men's field, 17-year-old Rafael Nadal of Spain, swept past the 21-year-old wild card, British No.11 Lee Childs, 6-2, 6-4, 6-3.
Both players recorded their first victories at Grand Slam level to meet in the second round. Childs dispatched the 33rd seed Nikolay Davydenko in a tough five-setter and Nadal defeating another player destined for stardom, Mario Ancic of Croatia, in straights sets. The two were playing to improve their playing credentials and boost their individual careers.
However, experience of playing at the top level favoured the younger player. That difference was well reflected in their respective rankings, Nadal having broken into the top 100 at 76 while Childs still languished at 487.
For the first two sets, Nadal looked set to romp through into round three, playing solidly from the back of the court from where his ground strokes proved devastating. Whenever the two engaged in baseline exchanges, it was usually Nadal who claimed the point.
Childs, though, had the more effective serve but despite putting eight aces past Nadal and hitting the fastest serve at 122 mph, his overall service percentage was lower than the Spaniard's and more brittle under the pressure of aggressive returns. This resulted in three breaks against him.
But the experience of winning over five sets two days earlier had given Childs a new outlook on the game and had fate, in the form of the weather, not intervened, he might have maintained his momentum.
Going for his shots at the start of the third he finally broke Nadal and though both players then exchanged breaks, the Briton hung on to lead 3-2 to the delight of his home supporters.
That bubble of expectation was pricked when the court became slippery following a slow fall of drizzle, forcing the umpire to suspend play for nearly an hour.
On resumption, Childs was immediately broken to level the match and, within 15 minutes, Nadal pocketed the win to take another giant step forward in his young career.
Nadal, who would have been happy with just a good performance in the first round, was grateful for the rain break and the opportunity to go further in The Championships. "It came at a good moment for me because he was getting hot and I wasn't hitting the ball that well then," the young Spaniard admitted after his win.
"I played better in my first round. I didn't play that well today because I wasn't as fast on my legs and that is very important on this surface. He also started to play well towards the end of the second set."
And in confirmation of the new attitude towards grass by his contemporaries, Nadal added: "It is changing right now because Spanish players are starting to get good results on these kinds of surfaces. The young players have the interest to play on these surfaces and develop their games."
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