Rafael Nadal baffled by ‘unusual’ and ‘terrible’ start to comeback win over Fabio Fognini at US Open 2022

Rafael Nadal was left baffled by his own “terrible” start before securing a comeback four-set win over Fabio Fognini at the US Open.

The 22-time Grand Slam champion advanced to the third round at Flushing Meadows, but only after he dropped the first set 6-2 and then lost his opening three service games in set two.

Fortunately for Nadal, he had broken Fognini twice to only trail 3-2 early in the second set, and two more breaks then helped the Spaniard level the match.

When asked how he was feeling in the press conference afterwards, Nadal replied: “Little bit of pain, honestly, but good. Happy after a terrible start. I don’t understand yet how I started that bad because the feeling before the match was good.

“These kind of things sometimes happen so I need to accept it and keep going. That’s what I did. Lucky that Fabio made some mistakes and I was able to start putting some balls in and finish the match playing obviously better, much better.”

Nadal was able to quickly bounce back from grazing his own nose, which left him requiring a plaster, saving two break points to hold serve before closing out the match.

“I was not able to be very focused when I come back from that,” he added. “I was a little bit in shock. I know that when I came back on court I was going to be in trouble for a while, but I needed to save that serve.

“I was lucky it was 15-40. But I had a couple of good serves and a good passing shot with the backhand. I won the game.

“Tennis is a lot about moments. The most important thing in this game is when you are playing bad or when the opponent is playing too good, don’t be too far on the score. When you are playing very well, create an advantage, no?

“It’s about making the things happens in the right moments. Today I was not doing that for a while. Then I think I started to compete. That’s what I was looking for for a set and a half, to start to compete. I was not competing, no? Something unusual of me.

“But the positive thing, I stayed there. I was positive. Even if the disaster was huge, I was not too frustrated. Just accepting the situation, staying humble enough that I don’t consider myself too good to not accept a lot of mistakes.”

Asked to elaborate on the incident which left the bridge of his nose bleeding, Nadal stressed: “We don’t need to create a story. It was just a strong hit. At the beginning I thought I broke the nose because it was a shock at the beginning. It was very painful.

“I lost a little bit the – I don’t know how to say in English – but a little bit of the feeling in my head. It’s about being a little bit out of the world.

“I don’t know, seems like it is not broken. I am not sure yet. I don’t know. I think it’s getting bigger and bigger.”

He added, with a smile: “That’s just a shock, in some ways I deserved to play that bad for a while. No, I’m joking.”

Nadal was also the first player to book his spot in the year-end ATP finals.

“I knew I would be there because of winning two Grand Slams, it’s difficult to not be there,” he added.

“But yeah, good news of course. One more year at the age of 36. I’ll finish the year probably, if nothing goes wrong, in the top five. It’s better than what we expected when we started the year and we didn’t know much about how the things were going to go.

“But I’m happy to stay alive [in the US Open] after tonight. Now is the moment to play better. I hope to be ready to make that happen.

“I am practising much, much better than what I am playing. That’s a positive thing. Then I need to make that happen in the matches. It’s something that is not easy, but I’m making a step forward.

“I think at the end of the match today I played better than in the first round without a doubt, too. It’s an improvement. Two matches already. Two victories. That helps. Now another opportunity against Richard.”

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