For a brief moment Thursday, Rafael Nadal looked like a 37-year-old at the end of his rope.
Unable to find a rhythm on either side of his forehand or maintain a tempo in long rallies, and after committing a surprising number of unforced errors, Nadal dropped the first set of his first-round match against Belgian Zizou Bergs at the Rome Open.
Then, the holder of 22 career Grand Slam titles, once unbeatable on clay, gradually found his bearings. The Spaniard finally overcame his opponent 4-6, 6-3 and 6-4 on the Roman clay, in front of a conquered crowd that had gathered for the occasion in the stands of the Foro Italico.
“It’s always been very emotional for me here, because these kind of tournaments are the most important in my tennis career,” Nadal said. “The crowd has always been great with me, they’ve always supported me since the beginning of my career. So I’m very happy to be able to play at least one more match here.”
Nadal was playing his 10th match this season, having missed most of 2023 with a hip injury that required surgery. He still hopes to make one last appearance at the French Open, where he has won 14 of his 22 Grand Slam titles. The Rome Open, where he has triumphed 10 times in his illustrious career, is the last major warm-up tournament before the start of Roland Garros on May 26.
“It wasn’t my best match. I was better in training than in a match situation today, without a shadow of a doubt. But I found a way to win,” Nadal said. “That’s what’s important at the beginning of a tournament. For me, it’s normal.”
“My game is more unpredictable than it used to be,” he admitted. “I haven’t played a lot of matches in the last two years. So my game is erratic, but I think I can play a lot better than I did today, and I hope that will be the case in the next round.”
In the first set, Nadal committed 16 unforced errors compared to ten for Bergs.
In the first game of the second set, the match was briefly suspended when a spectator requested medical attention. The interruption allowed Nadal to speak with his coach, Carlos Moya.
In the third set, Nadal won a point when he fell on the clay, quickly getting up to resume play before hitting a drop shot winner. He then placed a powerful crosscourt shot to score the break and make it 3-1.
Nadal’s mother and sister were in the front row and were full of encouragement for him. His one-year-old son was also there; he was on the edge of the court, on Nadal’s father’s lap.
The Nadal family will now be able to attend the second round duel between “Rafa” and the seventh seed, the Pole Hubert Hurkacz.
Top seed Novak Djokovic is in the other half of the main draw, while second seed Jannik Sinner and world number three Carlos Alcaraz are out due to injuries.
In other matches on Thursday morning, Serbian Hamad Medjedovic defeated Alexei Popyrin 6-3, 6-2, Thiago Seboth Wild beat Frenchman Gregoire Barrère 6-4, 6-2 and Dominik Köpfer eliminated Andrea Vavassori 6-4, 6-3.
In men’s doubles, Quebecer Félix Auger-Aliassime and his American playing partner Frances Tiafoe lost 1-6, 7-6 (6) and 7-10 to Kazakh Alexander Bublik and American Ben Shelton in the first round.
Auger-Aliassime, seeded 18th, will begin his singles campaign in the second round against the winner of the duel between American Nicolas Moreno De Alboran and Dutchman Botic van de Zandschulp .
On the women’s side, former world No. 1 Angelique Kerber soundly beat 17th seed Veronika Kudermetova 6-3, 6-0; while Naomi Osaka defeated 19th seed Marta Kostyuk 6-3, 6-2 in a match that was interrupted for an hour by rain.
