1 Response to olymp16nishikori_nadal

1. Voo de Mar says:

   August 8, 2024 at 1:23 pm

   Points won by each set: | 34-22, 44-48, 28-19 |
   Points won directly behind the serve:
   31 % Nishikori – 28 of 89
   24 % Nadal – 26 of 106

   [7] Nishikori is a strong contender to be perceived as the best Open Era player without any significant title; he lost a Slam final and four Masters 1K finals, therefore his Bronze medal at the Olympics in Rio may be considered as the highlight of his career. Nadal [5] was Nishikori’s toughest opponent at the time (Nadal led 9:1 in their H2H never being really close to lose during nine wins), but the circumstances of their 3rd place meeting, made the 27-year-old Japanese a slight favorite. The Spaniard was exhausted because it was his sixth match (4 singles, 2 doubles) within four days while Nishikori was playing only singles day by day. Moreover, Nadal had less time to recover after the semifinals because on Saturday he finished his three-hour thriller in the evening while Nishikori quickly lost in the afternoon. For an hour Nadal seemed like a player who was just checking his sore body. At 2-6, *1:3 there was no room to check it longer, and Nadal sent a signal he was ready to fight, serving two successive aces to hold at ‘love’. Nevertheless, Nishikori got his second break and serving at 5:2 the match was near its conclusion – the man from Japan not used to waste opportunities having a double break cushion. In three games in a row there was 30-all, but he was nervous, unable to create a match point. At 5-all he wasted a break point, and Nadal took the set. Before the decider the Japanese took a prolonged bathroom break, it lasted 11 minutes which annoyed Nadal. After the resumption, Nishikori got a break at 2:1, and stayed focused on his own serve. At the third time of asking, he finished like a big-server – Nadal couldn’t return four consecutive serves leading 15/0 after a superb passing-shot on the run: first he missed Nishikori’s second serve trying to be aggressive, then the Japanese delivered three big unreturned first serves, one of them it was an ace.

   [JPN] Nishikori’s route to the Bronze medal:
   1 Albert Ramos [ESP] 6-2, 6-4
   2 John Millman [AUS] 7-6(4), 6-4
   3 Andrej Martin [SLK] 6-2, 6-2
   Q Gael Monfils [FRA] 7-6(4), 4-6, 7-6(6) – 3 m.p.
   S Andy Murray [GB] 1-6, 4-6
   3rd place: Rafael Nadal [ESP] 6-2, 6-7(1), 6-3

   In the deciding tie-break against Monfils, Nishikori trailed 0:4 and 3:6!

   Serve & volley: Nishikori 1/1, Nadal 0

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