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NEW YORK – The older ones are raising their games, they say, but few of them are raising them as suddenly and completely – and with emotion – as did Rafael Nadal in the last two sets of his 6 -3, 3-6, 6-1, 6- 2 win over Marin Cilic on Monday night.
At the end of the second set, Cilic had a slight advantage in momentum. He started the game by missing his forehand, but started to connect to it as early as the second minute. This change helped to make the difference between a 6-3 defeat in the first set and a 6-3 win in the second set.
How would Rafa react? He had given his job to Cilic, who spent most of the second set inside the baseline. The match started to remind of Stan Wawrinka's victory against Novak Djokovic the night before. The guy who had nothing to lose was playing like he had nothing to lose and he was working.
Nadal started to find the answer right away in the third. He took part in the second service of Cilic and started to score points in the race, side by side, high and back. He knew that the great Croatian was not a match for him when they were both moving.
Anita Aguilar
Nadal reached twice the starting point of Cilic's first service set in the third set, but failed to convert. What would it take to break through? We discovered when Cilic still served at 1-2. Nadal won two points with a spectacular defense that ended with a more spectacular attack, and punctuated them with two bouncing punch pumps straight out of his teenage years. The crowd, including Tiger Woods, rose with him. All that Cilic could do at the break was a double fault.
Nadal would win nine points in a row and nine of the next 11 games. Cilic was stunned by those two shots at the beginning of the third and he never regained his balance. Rafa finally wore the final blow in the last game, at the penultimate point, when he sprinted out of the lane, managed a volley to throw Cilic an inch before he hit the court, and make a forehand around the net post and in the winning corner. The crowd and Tiger Woods were together again and never sat down.
…AROUND
……………….THE
………………………..NET!An absolutely unrealistic winner to set up a match point … ????????@Rafael Nadal | #US Open pic.twitter.com/TRJZ44h8ES
– US Open Tennis (@usopen) September 3, 2019
"It's easy to describe and hard to do," joked Nadal with ESPN's Tom Rinaldi on the pitch. "I followed the ball well because he did a good run. I ran fast to that ball and I [saw] at the last moment there might have been a little space on that side. I think that was the only way to earn this point. "
Nadal has thrown the glove for the rest of the draw now-Djokovic? You could say that. In addition to his spectacular throws, he was also impressive with his first serve. He made only 57%, but he won 83% of those points and 11 aces. The acceleration of the pace also resulted in six double faults, but a first rescue service would be an interesting weapon for him over the next three rounds.
Anita Aguilar
All this is in the future; Tonight, Ashe fans had a good dose of Nadal's show. Rafa had only played three quick matches ahead, but he went into the tournament against Cilic. We will see how long it will cling to it.
Looking at Wawrinka Sunday and Nadal on Monday and the excitement they generated at Ashe, I wondered why we were expecting tennis players to retire. Nadal seemed to have the same feeling. When asked what made him move forward, he answered simply, and only slightly, wrongly: "Nights like today."
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