Nadal has now been defeated by Fognini three times this year, with his earlier losses coming on clay in Rio and Barcelona. PHOTO: AFP
NEW YORK: Defiant Rafael Nadal vowed to fight on and restore his status as the game’s most feared player after crashing to his earliest US Open exit in 10 years.
The 14-time Grand Slam winner was knocked out by Italy’s Fabio Fognini, who pulled off a sensational 3-6, 4-6, 6-4, 6-3, 6-4 third-round victory.
The stunning result confirmed the sad, sudden decline of the 2010 and 2013 champion, who until Friday had won 151 Grand Slam matches when he had taken the first two sets.
Nadal will also finish the season without at least one Grand Slam title for the first time since 2004.
“I have to accept that it was not my year and keep fighting till the end of the season to finish in a positive way,” said Nadal, who lost for just the second time in his career at the French Open and endured a second-round exit at Wimbledon.
Meanwhile, top-ranked Novak Djokovic moved a step closer to his 10th career Slam crown and third of the year by defeating Italy’s Andreas Seppi 6-3, 7-5, 7-5, while Croatian ninth seed Marin Cilic barely escaped suffering the earliest exit of any defending champion since Andre Agassi in 1999 when he outlasted 56th-ranked Kazakh Mikhail Kukushkin 6-7 (5/7), 7-6 (7/1), 6-3, 6-7 (3/7), 6-1.
Serena struggles but historic journey rolls on
Serena Williams struggled but advanced to the fourth round of the US Open on Friday by defeating 101st-ranked compatriot Bethanie Mattek-Sands 3-6, 7-5, 6-0 at the Arthur Ashe Stadium.
The 33-year-old American, trying to complete the first calendar Grand Slam since Steffi Graf in 1988, battled nerves and mistakes plus a determined rival, but seized command late in the second set and dominated to the finish.
Serena connected only 52% of her first serves in the first set but was near 70% the rest of the way and won 81% of her first-serve points in all.
On the other hand, Venus Williams, 35, eased sister Serena’s path to the final by ousting the top-rated rival on their side of the draw, defeating 12th-seeded Swiss teen Belinda Bencic 6-3, 6-4.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 6th, 2015.
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