Ailing Rafael Nadal, struggling to cope with heat and humidity, retired from his second-round match on Saturday (Mar 26) at the ATP and WTA Miami Open, handing 94th-ranked Bosnian Damir Dzumhur a 2-6, 6-4, 3-0 triumph.
Rafael Nadal of Spain waits for a doctor before retiring during a match
against Damir Dzumhur of Bosnia and Herzegovina during Day 6 of the
Miami Open presented by Itau at Crandon Park Tennis Center on Mar 26,
2016 in Key Biscayne, Florida. (Photo: Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images/AFP)
Stan Wawrinka, of Switzerland, returns to Andrey Kuznetsov, of Russia,
during the Miami Open tennis tournament in Key Biscayne, Florida, Mar
26, 2016. (Photo: AP/Alan Diaz)
Kei Nishikori, of Japan, returns to Herbert Pierre-Hugues during their
match at the Miami Open tennis tournament on Mar 26, 2016, in Key
Biscayne, Florida. (Photo: AP/Lynne Sladky)
MIAMI: Rafael Nadal, dizzy as he struggled to cope with heat
and humidity and fearing for his safety, retired from his second-round
match on Saturday (Mar 26) at the ATP and WTA Miami Open.
The 14-time Grand Slam champion handed 94th-ranked Bosnian
Damir Dzumhur a 2-6, 6-4, 3-0 triumph when he stopped during a match for
the first time in six years.
"Everything was fine until the end of the first set and I
started to feel not very good," Nadal said. "It was getting worse and
worse and worse. I get a little bit scared to be too dizzy and to lose
fluids. I called the doctor a couple of times. I decided I was not safe.
I wanted to finish the match but I decided I would not."
Two-time Grand Slam champions Stan Wawrinka and Petra Kvitova also
crashed out of the hardcourt event, but Spanish fifth seed Nadal's exit
proved most stunning of all.
"Hopefully it's nothing," Nadal said. "Hopefully it's just
the extreme conditions out there, the beginning of a virus combined with
the conditions."
Nadal, a four-time Miami finalist but never a champion, was also a
first-match loser at the Australian Open, only the second Grand Slam
opener defeat of his career.
Dzumhur, 23, won 22 of the last 29 points as Nadal, 29,
repeatedly spoke with a trainer, asking for his blood pressure to be
taken after two games of the third set. "Can we not check the tension,
if it is good or bad please?" he said. Told it was good, he said,
"Continue."
After dropping the third game, he sat with his head down as a trainer
told him, "If you're feeling bad, there's no point to continue." Nadal
battled through three more points and finally said he could not go on.
"Definitely I want Rafa to recover," said Dzumhur. "He's one of the best players in tennis and I wish all the best for him."
Nadal squandered nine break-point chances before Dzumhur held in his
first service game of the match. But the Bosnian double faulted away the
last three points in the fourth game to surrender a break and Nadal
broke him again to finish off the set.Dzumhur broke Nadal in the third game of the second set but netted a forehand in the eighth game to pull the Spaniard level at 4-4. But the Bosnian responded by breaking back for a 5-4 lead, fist pumping after a backhand winner to claim the game, and held at love to force a third set.
Stan Wawrinka, of Switzerland, returns to
Andrey Kuznetsov, of Russia, during the Miami Open tennis tournament in
Key Biscayne, Florida, Mar 26, 2016. (Photo: AP/Alan Diaz)
WAWRINKA, KVITOVA OUSTED
Swiss fourth seed Wawrinka, who has won titles this year at
Chennai and Dubai, was ousted by Russia's Andrey Kuznetsov 6-4, 6-3
while Czech eighth seed Kvitova, the 2011 and 2014 Wimbledon winner,
fell to Russian 30th seed Ekaterina Makarova 6-4, 6-4.
"I just tried to keep the pressure on him," said Kuznetsov, who fired 23 winners and seven aces to advance in 79 minutes.
Wawrinka, the 2014 Australian Open and 2015 French Open
champion, managed only 16 winners against 37 unforced errors and went
0-for-8 on break point chances.
Kuznetsov, ranked a career-best 51st, avenged a third-round loss to
Wawrinka earlier this month at Indian Wells and made the Swiss his
highest-ranked beaten foe.
With Nadal and Wawrinka out, the top-ranked player in their
quarter of the draw is Canadian 12th seed Milos Raonic, who is coming
off a runner-up showing at Indian Wells. He beat American Denis Kudla
7-6 (7/4), 6-4 and next faces US 22nd seed Jack Sock, who advanced 6-2,
3-2 when Ukraine's Sergiy Stakhovsky retired with a back injury.
Kei Nishikori, of Japan, returns to Herbert
Pierre-Hugues during their match at the Miami Open tennis tournament on
Mar 26, 2016, in Key Biscayne, Florida. (Photo: AP/Lynne Sladky)
NISHIKORI FIGHTS THROUGH
Japanese sixth seed Kei Nishikori advanced to the third
round by downing 107th-ranked French qualifier Pierre-Hugues Herbert
6-2, 7-6 (7/4).
The 26-year-old Asian star, runner-up at the 2014 US Open
and coming off a fourth consecutive title last month at Memphis, denied
the Frenchman on two set points in the ninth game of the second set and
took four of the last five points in the tie-breaker to win after 88
minutes.
"He played much better in the second set," Nishikori said. "I tried
to be aggressive. I knew I had to somehow give him some pressure. I
stayed confident even a break down and had a good win."
Next up for Nishikori, who could meet Britain's Andy Murray
in a quarter-final, is Ukraine's 27th-seeded Alexandr Dolgopolov, a 6-4,
6-4 winner over Italy's Andreas Seppi.
Murray and women's world number one Serena Williams were scheduled to compete in later matches.
Polish third seed Agnieszka Radwanska reached the last 16 by
beating American Madison Brengle 6-3, 6-2 while Romanian fifth seed
Simona Halep downed Germany's Julia Goerges 6-4, 6-1, to book a last-16
matchup with British wildcard Heather Watson, who outlasted Belgian
Yanina Wickmayer 3-6, 7-5, 6-3.
- AFP/ec
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