Rafael Nadal endured one of those days when his rival plays the game of his life, but despite the efforts of Ricardas Berankis is the 22-time Grand Slam winner who is in the third round after a 6- 4, 6-4, Victory by 4-6, 6-3 over the world number 106 in Lithuania, on the central court.
Nadal, who says he is living the life of a hermit in the SW19 thanks to the outbreak of Covid that has earned a third player in the men’s draw, will now face Italian Lorenzo Sonego on Saturday.
“It wasn’t the best start, but it was probably the best end,” Nadal said. “I have room to improve. A couple of weeks ago I was close to retirement, but now I don’t feel that way.” Speaking about Covid, he said he was taking extra precautions because, “That’s the reality. I stay home, I don’t go out anymore. At some point you have to open up, but then there are more cases, that’s part of the challenging world we’re in. “
A delay in the rain made Nadal take the best part of four hours to see an energetic and intrepid performance by Berankis. The narrative of the competition was defined in the first set where Nadal was clearly superior but unable to constantly find a level to exercise dominance, while Berankis was able to summon enough quality moments to stay in the match. It was a convincing competition and it wasn’t until his fifth serve game that his 5-foot 9-inch opponent showed weakness, a terrible double foul to give a break point that Nadal swallowed, to take the set. 6-4.
Berankis immediately picked up a Christmas game at the start of the second, and while Nadal quickly broke down, Berankis avoided further losses again until the fifth serve game and the score at two, when Christmas’s power overwhelmed him.
Rafael Nadal slips on the center court. Photography: Tom Jenkins / The Guardian
The third set saw Berankis create memories he will savor at the end of his career, the 32-year-old breaking down again soon and this time not only holding on but overcoming Christmas in some of the most fluid tennis of the match. His right foot sparkled, his service was reliable and he also earned spectacular points in the fourth set, including the last one before it rained. But at the time Berankis was losing 3-0 and there was no way the French Open champion was going to give up an advantage like that. Nadal returned to the court dusted off and methodically opened up to victory.
In the early hours of the day, Stefanos Tsitsipas set up a great showdown in the third round of service with Nick Kyrgios after rejecting Jordan Thompson’s challenge in straight sets 6-2, 6-3, 7-5.
The mustachioed Thompson was a volunteer opponent, whose defense made the match not entirely a step, but in the end the speed of Tsitsipas’ service and the aggressiveness of his returns proved too much for the Australian.
The No. 4 seed has only reached the fourth round of Wimbledon once and has to beat a lit Kyrgios to do so again, but after his first turf title in Mallorca last week, the Greek is doing well .
“I felt really good from the start,” he said. “I felt confident with something I didn’t have as much confidence in [about] in my first round game, which was … having it first [return] which makes my opponent out of position. This has worked a lot today, giving me many opportunities to constantly break up or get close to a break. That’s something that worked great. “