An ailing Rafa Nadal dug deep into his vast reservoir of grit to stave off American qualifier Tim Smyczek and stagger into the third round of the Australian Open on a day of great escapes, yesterday.
Gushing sweat and stooping woozily between points, the sickly Spaniard dragged his cramping body into a fifth set under the lights of Rod Laver Arena, breaking the 112th-ranked American in the 11th game before closing out a 6-2 3-6 6-7 6-3 7-5 win in four hours and 12 minutes.
Nadal slumped to his knees on the blue hard court having narrowly averted a repeat of his Melbourne Park jinx.
“It was a very tough night for me (and)... a tough period of seven months without any kind of competition,” Nadal, who was out of action for several months during the latter half of the 2014 through injury and illness, said.
For much of the match, there was a hush over the terraces, with many in the crowd no doubt spooked by the memories of Nadal’s torture in the final last year when he lost to Stan Wawrinka while carrying a back injury.
Centre court was the backdrop for nerve-shredding tests for some of the coolest heads in the business and with the temperature rising above 32 degrees Celsius, Maria Sharapova showed ice in her veins.
She mounted a brilliant counter-attack to fend off fellow Russian Alexandra Panova, a 150th-ranked qualifier playing the match of her life.
Down two breaks of serves at 4-1 in the deciding set, Sharapova clawed back to 5-4 and clobbered a string of forehand winners to save two match-points before marching on to a hard-earned 6-1 4-6 7-5 victory.
“When other things aren’t working, maybe the mental side of things will help you out,” the five-times grand slam champion said.
Men’s second seed Roger Federer was also forced to scrap in the following match on centre court, after being thrown by a phantom pain on the little finger of his racquet hand during his 3-6 6-3 6-2 6-2 win over 48th-ranked Italian Simone Bolelli.
Stunned in the first set by a barrage of clean hitting, the Swiss master growled at a prying television camera as medical staff examined his finger during the change of ends.
However, he gritted his teeth and merely got on with the job, closing out the match with a rush to the net that would have pleased coach and famous serve-volleyer Stefan Edberg.
Murray in a hurry
Andy Murray’s second outing on the Margaret Court Arena yesterday was far more serene as the sixth seed trounced Marinko Matosevic 6-1 6-3 6-2 to retreat to the cool of the shade after 102 impressive minutes.
The Scot’s win extended his unbeaten record against Australians to 10-0, deflating the crowd’s joy slightly after 10 locals had made it past the first round across both the men’s and women’s draws.
Murray next faces Portugal’s Joao Sousa before a potential showdown with young gun Grigor Dimitrov, who wobbled but won 6-3 6-7 6-3 6-3 against Lukas Lacko.
Canadian sensation Eugenie Bouchard, a semi-finalist on her Melbourne Park debut last year, continued her love affair with the blue hard courts, despatching Kiki Bertens 6-0 6-3 in 54 minutes.
Third seed Simona Halep, highly fancied to win her maiden grand slam title after a breakthrough 2014, capped the evening session by thrashing Australia’s Jarmila Gajdosova 6-2 6-2.