This season, the North American hard courts have shown early doors to some prominent players. In recent developments, third seed Novak Djokovic, playing his first match since upsetting top-ranked Roger Federer in the Montreal Masters final, fell 6-4, 6-1 to Carlos Moya. The Serbian’s dramatic win last week, by upsetting world top three players in successive matches conceivably doesn’t seem to be a fluke.
Djokovic said, ‘I felt a bit tired and didn’t have enough time to prepare for this tournament. I arrived two nights ago, but I played doubles yesterday.’
However, second seed Rafael Nadal was finally forced to retreat from his second-round match against Juan Monaco after trailing 7-6 (7-5), 4-1 owing to severe cramps and dizziness. This, indeed, is a major blow to Nadal’s ongoing preparations for the upcoming U.S. Open starting August 27, in New York.
Nadal said:
I had some cramping here. I wasn’t grasping the racquet very well. I didn’t feel anything when I was touching the racquet. Monaco was playing well but I couldn’t play more than three balls on every point. I wasn’t feeling well. I didn’t have power in the legs. It was stupid to continue playing because I felt I couldn’t do anything. I couldn’t move and the dizziness was getting worse.
Eighth seed Richard Gasquet earlier retired with a blister on his hand in a match against Lleyton Hewitt. Last year’s runner-up Juan Carlos Ferrero defeated sixth seed Fernando Gonzalez 6-2 7-6 (9-7), while Nicolas Almagro upset 11th seed Ivan Ljubicic 6-4 6-4. Radek Stepanek, a semi-finalist in Montreal last week, went down 6-2 7-5 to 16th seed David Ferrer.
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Via: BBC
