The face looks plenty scrunched up, blood gleams through the nose patch – but Rafael Nadal gives a thumbs up. “All good,” the Spanish tennis star wrote alongside the picture from the catacombs of Arthur Ashe Stadium, which he posted on Instagram at 1.35am to the reassurance of his many fans on the internet.
Before that, the 22-time Grand Slam tournament winner had caused a double shock at the US Open: first, he had been completely off his game for a set and a half in his laborious 2-6, 6-4, 6-2, 6-1 win over Italy’s Fabio Fognini. And then the 36-year-old injured himself as well.
“We don’t need to make a story out of it “
When he was hit in the backhand, the thug hit his nose hard from the ground. The bleeding wound had to be treated in a medical time-out. Nadal played with a nose plaster from then on – and suddenly got out of rhythm again. However, the world number two quickly regained his composure and advanced to the third round. There he will meet Richard Gasquet from France.
It had happened to him before with a golf club, “but not with a tennis racket,” Nadal said afterwards, smiling at his faux pas. He felt “a bit dizzy” and it “hurt a bit”. At the subsequent press conference well after midnight, Nadal completely ruled out a possible concussion: “No, we don’t need to make a story out of it. It was just a hard blow. “
For him it was “a shock” at the beginning, he felt “a bit out of the world”, reported Nadal, who lay on the floor of the hard court for a few minutes during the treatment break: “I don’t think the nose is broken. I don’t. I think it’s getting bigger and bigger.”
The title favourite was not at all happy with “one of the worst starts to a match I’ve ever had”. But he got himself out of that slump: “Even though the disaster was big, I wasn’t too frustrated. “
