For 20-time Major champion Rafael Nadal, reaching the latter stages at the Paris Masters was never a problem if he was healthy. Still, the Spaniard has yet to go all the way and lift one of the rare titles missing from his rich collection, suffering the semi-final loss to Alexander Zverev last November and missing out on this year’s event.
Returning to Paris a few weeks after lifting the 20th Major title 13 months ago, Nadal couldn’t find the best game in him. The Spaniard battled hard in the second leg in all four matches, scoring three wins before hitting the starting gate after a 6-4, 7-5 loss to an in-form German.
Nadal had to dig deep against Feliciano Lopez and Pablo Carreno Busta to find himself in the bottom four and had no chance against Zverev, who came to Paris after winning back-to-back indoor titles at home in Cologne. Earning his second straight win over Rafa on an indoor court, Alexander fired 13 aces and saved two of three break chances and surrendered three breaks to come out on top in straight sets.
The German had 37 winners and 18 unforced errors, hitting 20 more winners than Rafa and an unreturned serve on 30% of all service points. Zverev dominated Nadal in the shortest and longest exchanges, staying strong when it mattered most advancing to the seventh Masters 1000 final.
The younger player broke in the third game of the first game after forcing an error from the 20-time Major champion and fired a booming serve for a 3-1 lead after 14 minutes. Nadal painted a backhand down the line in game seven to keep in touch and was hoping for some chances on the return in the rest of the set.
Instead, Zverev brought Game 10 home with a 6-4 winner in 38 minutes.
Nadal has recovered on time
In his book, Rafael Nadal: My Story, Nadal has detailed why he chose the left hand over the right hand in tennis. He said, “I’ve seen reports in the news media saying that Toni forced me to play left-handed, and that he did this because it would make me harder to play against.
Well, it’s not true. It’s a story the newspapers have made up. The truth is that I began playing when I was very small, and because I wasn’t strong enough to hit the ball over the net, I’d hold the racquet with both hands, on the forehand as well as the backhand”.
