Rafael Nadal Set To Open Grass Season Today In Stuttgart Against Marcos Baghdatis
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In the next hour or so, Rafael Nadal will open his 2015 grass court season. The former No. 1 now ranked No. 10, Nadal will face Marcos Baghdatis in the second round of the Stuttart Open.
Last year, Nadal lost in the opening round in Halle (l. to Brown) and 4R at Wimbledon (l. to Kyrgios). He has played in Halle three times (1-3 record) and at the Queen’s Club five times, winning the title in ’08. He has a 53-15 career record on grass (.779) with three titles, most recently at 2010 Wimbledon.
Nadal has compiled a 13-2 record in Stuttgart when the event was held on clay, winning the title in 2005 (d. Gaudio) and ’07 (d. Wawrinka), which was also his last appearance.
Since falling to Novak Djokovic in the 2011 Wimbledon final, Nadal is just 6-5 on grass. His last Top 50 win on grass came over Andy Murray in the 2011 Wimbledon semifinals.
Nadal has already played in doubles teaming with Feliciano Lopez to beat Rameez Junaid and Adil Shamasdin yesterday.
Marin Cilic is scheduled to follow Nadal.
In a match just concluded, Bernard Tomic ended the comeback bid of German Tommy Haas 76, 62. The 37-year-old Haas was playing in his first event in over a year.
“The positive thing was that I felt ready to go out there and finally see where I am at,” said Haas after his first round win over Mikhail Kukushkin. “Obviously, it is still not at a point where I want it to be, but maybe it will never get back to that point anyway. You have to start somewhere and see what’s going on, especially during a match.
There were times when it felt sore still, where it didn’t give me the strength or the speed I would like. But you’ve got to test it out and see how it feels and how I recover today, tomorrow. It didn’t get worse during the match, which is a good thing.”
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