Rafa Nadal sweats to beat Sinner in his debut at the Masters 1000 in Rome

Rafa Nadal made his debut with victory in Rome against the Italian Jannik Sinner (7-5 and 6-4). It was the second time that both tennis players had met, the first was last year at Roland Garros where the Spaniard won in three rounds. A rather complicated debut for the manacorense who had a bad time at the start of the game. The 19-year-old Italian has a lot of potential and is one of the great promises of the future, the Manacorean had to go against the tide at first. Sinner broke him twice in the first six games, but Nadal reacted quickly and returned both breaks instantly. At Roland Garros it was already difficult for him to win the first set that was decided in the tie-break, and here at the Foro Italico it was not going to be less. With 5-4 in his favor, the nine-time winner of this tournament enjoyed three set balls. Sinner reacted and saved the 0-40 to equal five on the scoreboard. Rafa remained firm at the service to aim for 6-5 and subtract, again, to score the first round. Nadal could not find a way to break his rival’s serve, the Italian responded well and saved the breaking ball. The seventh time was the charm. After Sinner saved six break balls, on the seventh he managed to knock down the wall and put the first on his scoreboard. Far from collapsing, Jannik started the second set with a break in the third game to go 1-3 up after confirming the break. Again it was time to go to tow. Nadal did not find the key to recover the break and bend the young transalpine tennis player, who was showing very solid. He couldn’t land good shots with his forehand. The Spaniard resisted and remained a break below at all times until he found his opportunity.With 4-3 and 30-0 in favor of Sinner, the king of the clay returned to dominate from the back of the court to finish with a drop, which added to two consecutive failures of the Italian put him with a break ball to equal the marker. The one from Manacor took his best shots to take his rival to the limit in the exchange until causing the failure. That was the beginning of the comeback. It went from 2-4 to 6-4. It took four match balls to close out a bout in which he sweated for victory. Now, in the round of 16 of the Masters 1000, he will face Denis Shapovalov for a place in the quarterfinals.