A nervy Nadal preyed on his opponent’s mistakes to secure a second-round match at Indian Wells. Playing in his 15th Indian Wells tournament, Rafa started the game in good form with a break of service in the first game. He quickly raced to a 4-0 lead in the opening set to win 6-2. However, the American came out stronger in the second set as Nadal hit a lot of errors, losing 6-1.
With a 5-2 advantage in the third set, the 21-year-old double served to win the match in Indian Wells. Despite looking down and out against an inspired opponent, Rafa managed to turn the match around just like in the Australian Open final. The Spaniard is currently on an unbeaten run of sixteen games, making this his best start to a career season.
“He moved closer to the baseline. I could see that he was a little worried, changing up his tactics. Just didn’t play good games, and he took advantage of it.”
Sebastian Korda
In spite of losing his streak of thirteen straight sets dating back to the Australian Open final, Nadal denied Korda a famous success against his idol with another tight match. Nadal is due to face Britsh’s Evan Daniels after his victory over Coria Federico.
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Naomi Osaka Gets Taunted In Indian Wells
After suffering greatly from depression and mental health issues in 2021, Naomi Osaka said in a previous press conference that she is in a rather good place at the moment. However, Naomi looked unusually upset during her second-round match against Veronika Kudermetova.
After being broken in the first game, a female fan taunted Osaka, screaming “Naomi, you suck!”. The Japanese lost the opening set 6-0, admitting she was unsettled by the taunt. She went on to lose the match 6-0, 6-4, putting on a better performance in the second.
“I’ve been heckled before and it didn’t really bother me, but being heckled here. I’ve watched video of Venus and Serena get heckled here and if you’ve never watched it, you should watch it. And I don’t know why, but it went into my head and got replayed a lot.’’
Noami Osaka
