‘Scared’ Rafael Nadal Retires at Hot and Humid Miami Open; Young Guns Power Through
Four retirements, including former No. 1 Rafael Nadal, encapsulated a crazy day of second-round results on Saturday at the sweltering Miami Open.
ADHEREL
It was a rare retirement for Nadal, who after two medical timeouts called it quits, feeling dizzy trailing Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Damir Dzumhur 2-6, 6-4, 3-0.
“Hopefully it’s nothing, it’s just the extreme conditions,” said Nadal, who pulled the ripcord in the hot and humid Miami conditions. “I called the doctor a couple of times but I felt I was not safe there, so I decided to go. Everything was fine until the end of the first set. I started to feel not very good, it was getting worse and worse and worse. In the second set I realized that I was not able to keep playing. I tried to resist but I got a little bit scared to be too dizzy. I wanted to finish the match but I seriously couldn’t.”
It was the first time that Nadal retired from a match in more than six years.
Nadal was only one of a rash of retirements on the day, joining No. 30 seed Thomaz Bellucci who retired after two sets against Mikhail Kukushkin, Sergiy Stakhovsky who retired in the second set against No. 22 Jack Sock, and Aljaz Bedene who retired in the second set against No. 17 Roberto Bautista Agut.
The third quarter of the draw opens up without Nadal as Dzumhur will next face Kukushkin.
Top 10-seeded winners on Saturday were No. 2 Andy Murray defeating Denis Istomin 6-3, 7-5, No. 6 Kei Nishikori defeating Pierre-Hugues Herbert 6-2, 7-6(4), and No. 9 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga easing past Colombia’s Santiago Giraldo 6-3, 6-1.
“That second set was tight but I managed to get through it,” Murray said.
Murray will next meet No. 26 Grigor Dimitrov, who was a three-set winner over Federico Delbonis. No. 9 Tsonga will next face No. 17 Bautista Agut, and Nishikori will next meet Russian Andrey Kuznetsov, who stunned No. 4 Stanislas Wawrinka 6-4, 6-3.
“Today was very tough to play with this weather and these conditions,” Kuznetsov said. “I think it helped me today because I saw that Stan was struggling with moving, and it was also very hot for him as well.”
Also on the upset tip were American Tim Smyczek ousting countryman and No. 13 seed John Isner 6-2, 2-6, 7-6(5), and France’s Adrian Mannarino coming from a set down to beat No. 29 Sam Querrey 6-7(5), 6-2, 6-4.
Other seeded winners were No. 12 Milos Raonic over American Denis Kudla 7-6(4), 6-4; No. 16 Gael Monfils topping Japan’s Tatsuma Ito 6-3, 6-2; No. 23 Pablo Cuevas defeating Aussie John Millman 7-5, 6-4; No. 24 Nick Kyrgios overpowering veteran Marcos Baghdatis 6-2, 6-1; and No. 27 Alexandr Dolgopolov beating Italian Andreas Seppi 6-4, 6-4.
No. 12 Raonic will next meet No. 22 Sock in a serving slug-fest.
Matches to look for on a tame Sunday include (1) Novak Djokovic vs. (33) Joao Sousa, an all-French in (10) Richard Gasquet vs. (20) Benoit Paire, and (11) Marin Cilic vs. (18) Gilles Simon.
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