Nadal Routs Blanch At Madrid Masters, Alcaraz To Test Forearm Friday; Sabalenka, Rybakina Fri

Rafael Nadal didn’t was far from his best but still well good enough to hammer teen Darwin Blanch 6-1, 6-0 in the first round at the Madrid Masters.

Playing just his third event of the season, the 37-year-old Nadal didn’t have his serve at full strength nor his strokes, yet still lost one game against the 16-year-old.

“I think today I played against an opponent with a great future in front, but today, still making mistakes. I just tried to be there, be solid all the time without taking a lot of risks,” Nadal said to the ATP. “It worked well. I’m happy to be through and I wish him all the very best for the future.”

Nadal benefit from 15 unforced errors in the opener against the left American who trains at the Ferrero Academy.

“Obviously, it wasn’t my best day level-wise, I feel like I wasn’t able to bring out my best level,” Blanch commented. “But obviously it was a really, really good experience. I was really happy to be able to play Nadal in a stadium like this, so, I’m going to try to take the most of it.

“Honestly, a lot of kids my age don’t really get to experience that, with all those people around. So it definitely felt really nice being able to experience that.”

Nadal, a 5-time Madrid champion, will now get a rematch Saturday with Alex De Minaur who beat the clay king last week in Barcelona.

In the women’s draw, seeds hit the court and Coco Gauff didn’t lose a game with a 6-0, 6-0 win over Arantxa Rus for her first double bagel.

“I played really well today. She’s a great, tough opponent, especially on clay, but it was just one of those days for me,” Gauff said afterwards. “Oh-and-oh, I’ve never done that before, I’ll probably never do it again.

“I knew how she was going to play. I know she grinds, puts a lot of balls in court, and likes to play heavy — but I just felt like those are things that I can do well too. I felt like I could step in more, and having that match against Brenda to scout her kind of helped.”

Iga Swiatek eased past Xiyu Wang 6-1, 6-4 and Maria Sakkari took out Donna Vekic 6-3, 6-2. In the match of the day Naomi Osaka fell to Liudmila Samsonova 6-2, 4-6, 7-5.

Tomorrow, 2-time defending champion Carlos Alcaraz makes his 2024 European clay debut. He’ll test that right forearm against Alexander Shevchenko.

Former winner Alexander Zverev is also on court along with Andrey Rublev and Holger Rune.

For the women, former winner Aryna Sabalenka is joined by Stuttgart champion Elena Rybakina on the marquee.

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