“Playing Rafa is something special”: Hurkacz knocks Nadal out in Rome

Pole Hubert Hurkacz, the No 7 seed, defeated Spaniard Rafael Nadal 6-1, 6-3 to advance to the third round of the Rome Masters at the Foro Italico in Roma on Saturday.

The first two games of the match took nearly half an hour, and afterwards Hurkacz spoke about how he dealt with that challenge.

“After those long games I got into a pretty good rhythm and thought, ‘I can go like this forever’, and just tried to compete,” he said. “The score looks the way it is but I knew I had to be on the top of my game throughout the whole match, if I dropped just a little bit then he’s going to be right back there.”

Nadal: The scoreline lies a little bit

Nadal agreed that the first-set scoreline was a little deceptive.

“I think have been a tough one, obviously. It’s obvious that I started well the match. First few games, almost half an hour first two games, having a few chances and playing well. Then I had the break and I lost little bit the way to push him back, the way to create that much on him. In the first set I think the score lie a little bit about what the game was. Then he was much better than me in the second. I don’t have that feeling in the first, but in the second, yeah. I was not able to push him back.

“That’s the case, no? Starts to be more difficult. Here is not the biggest court. He was serving well. It was difficult for me to return. It’s difficult to feel yourself with real chances of come back with his serve and without being able to create enough damage to him and creating mistakes.”

Hurkacz: I wanted to play him so much

It was the first time the two had met, and Hurkacz said afterwards that it was a match he had looked forward to greatly.

“I’m really proud of myself,” Hurkacz said afterwards. “Playing Rafa is something special, it’s just different, especially on clay, the surface that he has dominated over the past 20 years. No-one will ever have a record like him on this surface.”

He added: “Growing up, looking up to him, seeing him win all those titles, here and at the French Open…it was special experience. I wanted to play him so much, especially on clay, just being able to share the court and especially the atmosphere at the beginning of the match, how people really love him and support him throughout his whole career.”

Hurkacz, ranked No 9, will face Argentinian Tomas Martin Etcheverry, the No 25 seed, next.

In the previous round of the Italian Open, Nadal, ranked No 305, edged out Belgian qualifier Zizou Bergs (4-6, 6-3, 6-4).

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Roma Masters 1000, other second-round results (Foro Italico, clay, EUR 7.877.020, most recent results first):

• Luca Nardi vs. Holger Rune
• Marcos Giron vs. Andrey Rublev
• Stefanos Tsitsipas vs. Jan-Lennard Struff
• Felix Auger-Aliassime vs. Botic van de Zandschulp
• Jaume Munar vs. Cameron Norrie
• Jack Draper vs. Daniil Medvedev
• Sebastian Baez vs. Dusan Lajovic
• Arthur Fils vs. Alexandre Muller
• Roberto Carballes Baena vs. Alex De Minaur
• Dominik Koepfer vs. Frances Tiafoe: saturday
• Juncheng Shang vs. Stefano Napolitano: saturday
• Tommy Paul vs. Aslan Karatsev: saturday
• Hamad Medjedovic (Q) beat Alejandro Davidovich Fokina (30): 7-6 (4), 6-4
• Tomas Martin Etcheverry beat Thiago Seyboth Wild: 6-3, 7-5
• Nicolas Jarry (21) beat Matteo Arnaldi: 6-2, 7-6 (6)
• Novak Djokovic (1) beat Corentin Moutet (LL): 6-3, 6-1
• Francisco Cerundolo (20) beat Matteo Gigante (WC): 6-1, 6-3
• Miomir Kecmanovic beat Casper Ruud (5): 0-6, 6-4, 6-4
• Taylor Fritz (11) beat Fabio Fognini (WC): 6-3, 6-4
• Alejandro Tabilo (29) beat Yannick Hanfmann: 6-3, 7-6 (4)
• Karen Khachanov (16) beat Alexander Shevchenko: 6-4, 6-4
• Francesco Passaro (Q) beat Tallon Griekspoor (23): 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 (5)
• Alexander Zverev (3) beat Aleksandar Vukic: 6-0, 6-4
• Sebastian Korda (24) beat Flavio Cobolli: 7-6 (6), 4-6, 6-4
• Thiago Monteiro (Q) beat Jordan Thompson (32): 6-1, 6-3
• Zhizhen Zhang beat Adrian Mannarino (19): 6-1, 6-3
• Ben Shelton (12) beat Pavel Kotov: 4-6, 6-3, 6-4
• Luciano Darderi beat Mariano Navone (28): 6-3, 6-2
• Grigor Dimitrov (8) beat Yoshihito Nishioka: 7-5, 6-4
• Terence Atmane (Q) beat Lorenzo Musetti (26): 7-5, 1-0 ret.
• Nuno Borges beat Alexander Bublik (15): 6-4, 6-4