Bob Larson Daily Tennis
July 8, 2024
Rafael Nadal is at it again. At a time when most of the Big Discoveries of Yestreyear are stumbling (Paul-Henri Matheiu is a mess, Richard Gasquet is playing Challengers), Rafael Nadal seems intent on finding new worlds to conquer. Or at least new rankings to be attained. On Tuesday, he pulled off yet another big upset, beating #3 seed Younes El Aynaoui 6-3 4-6 6-3. El Aynaoui was last year's finalist; it appears this will cost him a couple of ranking spots.
Nor was El Aynaoui the only seeded veteran to be knocked off by a young Spaniard. You can also cross off Fernando Vicente, a 6-4 6-3 victim of David Ferrero.
#1 seed and defending champion Carlos Moya gave a pretty good imitation of his fellow Mallorcan, winning the first set, losing the second, then winning the third: He beat Dominik Hrbaty 6-2 6-7 6-3. Also Spanish, also seeded, and also through is Tommy Robredo, who beat Swedish qualifier Marcus Sarstrand 6-3 6-2. Rounding out the seeds in action was #5 Mariano Zabaleta, who beat Nicolas Massu 2-6 6-3 6-3.
When Hicham Arazi faced Magnus Norman, a slumping player was guaranteed to win. (Is that how oracles build their reputations?) But not even a Swedish crow could help Norman; Arazi advanced 7-5 6-4.
If the Swedes are feeling depressed about their older players (Norman, Enqvist, Johansson), at least Robin Soderling is giving them something to talk about. He followed up his solid Wimbledon with a 7-5 6-1 win over qualifier Markus Hipfl, and will face Moya next. Also holding up Swedish honor, despite being just in from Wimbledon, is Jonas Bjorkman, who beat Mariano Puerta 7-6 6-4. But Andreas Vinciguerra withdrew; his place was taken by Lucky Loser Ladislav Svarc, who proceeded to lose 6-4 6-3 to Franco Squillari. (And even that represents progress; Svarc hadn't made a main draw this year, and last year, he lost all three ATP qualifying matches he played.)
In other results, Albert Portas beat qualifier Rogier Wassen (who also qualified for Gstaad last year and lost in the first round) 6-4 6-4, while Filippo Volandri took out qualifier Federico Browne 6-1 6-1.
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