Borna Coric spoils Rafael Nadal’s return from a 6-week layoff with a 3-set victory at the Western & Southern Open

Borna Coric spoils Rafael Nadal’s return from a 6-week layoff with a 3-set victory at the Western & Southern Open

Borna Coric spoils Rafael Nadal’s return: MASON, Ohio – Borna Coric spoiled Rafael Nadal’s return from a six-week layoff by beating him 7-6 (9), 4-6, 6-3 on Wednesday night in the Western & Southern Open.

The winner of a men’s record 22 Grand Slam championships, including two this year, was absent since July 6. An abdominal tear forced him to withdraw from a semifinal match to be played with Nick Kyrgios at Wimbledon. He hoped to put the final touches on prepping for the upcoming US Open.

“With a week-and-a-half to New York, it is sad to not play here,” Nadal said. “I need to get into Grand Slam mode.”

The second-seeded and third-ranked Nadal, 36, had no signs of the injury that spoiled his serve. He reached a speed of 121 mph with one serve and used different body movements to return some of Coric’s shots.

“I need to practice,” Nadal said. “I need to return better. I need days. It’s better to come back when you’ve spent a period of time outside and win your first match. I wasn’t ready enough to win the match today. The big thing is to stay healthy. It’s a difficult injury to manage. I need to take it step by step.’”

The match between them went on for 2 hours, and 51 minutes. This did not include a rain delay of 1 hour, and 25 minutes in the first set.

In the men’s second-round tennis match, 11th-ranked Cameron Norrie managed to defeat three-time Grand Slam champion Andy Murray 3-6, 6-3, 6-4.

Also, Taylor Fritz defeated Kyrgios 6-3, 6-2. The 19-year-old wild card Ben Shelton dominated fifth-ranked Casper Ruud. Shelton became the youngest American tennis player to defeat a top-five opponent since Andy Roddick defeated No.1, Gustavo Kuerten, in the year 2001.

Sebastian Korda defeated Frances Tiafoe 4-6, 6-1, 6-4 and managed to reach the third round in Cincinnati for the first time ever. He belongs to a group of four American men to reach this stage of the tournament, the most since 2003 when there were five.