Nadal beaten by De Minaur as clay comeback halted in Barcelona

Rafael Nadal’s clay comeback was halted within the second spherical in Barcelona as he was overwhelmed by in-form Alex de Minaur.

Enjoying his first event in three months attributable to accidents, Nadal hit 11 winners and 42 unforced errors as he misplaced 7-5 6-1.

It’s the earliest 12-time champion Nadal has misplaced on the Barcelona Open since his debut in 2003.

De Minaur has been one of many kind gamers on the ATP Tour this 12 months and broke Nadal’s serve within the opening recreation.

Nadal rallied to get stage at 3-3, unleashing his trademark backhand with a drilled cross-court winner previous an outstretched De Minaur.

However De Minaur completed the set on a sizzling streak as he received 11 factors in a row to maneuver forward.

Nadal saved a break level within the first recreation of the second set however couldn’t dangle on in his subsequent service recreation as a free forehand and missed volley gave De Minaur the break.

Nadal continued to battle however was coming off second greatest in most exchanges as De Minaur moved 4-1 forward with one other break of serve.

The Australian wrapped up the victory in slightly below two hours as Nadal went lengthy with one other forehand.

Nadal is on the entry record for subsequent week’s Madrid Open as he continues to construct health forward of the French Open and Paris Olympics.

Stefanos Tsitsipas received his opening match in Barcelona as he beat Sebastian Ofner 6-4 7-5.

British No. 2 Jack Draper got here from a set right down to beat Rudolf Molleker and attain the quarter-finals of the Bavarian Worldwide in Munich.

Draper did not create a single break-point probability within the opening set, however got here out firing after a 45-minute rain delay and received 4-6 6-1 6-1.

He’ll face third seed Taylor Fritz or Alejandro Moro Canas within the final eight.

“He performed an incredible stage within the first set,” stated Draper.

“The situations have been very wet and sluggish, so it was robust to return out and play a sure method. Within the second and third, the solar got here out and I began feeling higher. higher. I am actually happy with how I performed.”

Prime seed Alexander Zverev received 7-6(3) 6-2 in opposition to Jurij Rodionov in one other match that was interrupted by a rain delay.