It took Rafael Nadal 3 hours and 6 minutes to overcome Argentinian Pedro Cachin, 91st in the world, on Monday April 29, in the third round of the Masters 1000 in Madrid. The former world number 1 was resilient and re-mobilized to qualify in three sets for the next round: 6-1, 5-7, 6-3. Last year, Cachin reached the round of 16 in the Spanish capital. This time, he leaves this privilege to his eldest, for his last participation in the tournament.
Rafael Nadal entered his match at the Manolo Santana Stadium ideally: from the first game, he broke the Argentinian, who seemed tense by the stakes and the opponent. The set is one-sided. Cachin commits a lot of unforced errors, Nadal does not need to regain all his speed to keep the points running. On the serve of his younger brother, the Majorcan very easily won the first set (6-1).
The second set will have a completely different look. The Argentinian revolts and raises his level. He only conceded five unforced errors in the first five games. Nadal, for his part, takes the opposite route and is no longer able to find length on his forehands. Result: Cachin breaks the Majorcan twice and leads 4-1. The Spaniard does not let himself be left behind and regains control of his serve to return to 5-4. Under pressure, Pedro Cachin does not take advantage of his opponent’s short balls and lets two set points slip away. Crumbly, he still managed to snatch a set, with a remarkable passing, at the end of the decisive game and almost 1 hour and 30 minutes of rallies (5-7).
Czech Jiri Lehecka in eighth
The Argentinian attacks the decisive third set on serve, but the Spaniard seems to have found a second wind thanks to the break, with power and length in his forehands. He starts to trot between games, as if to show his opponent that he is still there. Making the entry break, he nevertheless experiences a new physical slump which Cachin intelligently tries to exploit, in particular by cushioning. Without success. The 91st in the world is too passive, too timid at the net. He gradually lost his shot quality until conceding the match on his throw-in (6-3).
Facing a very approachable opponent, Rafael Nadal did not deliver a reassuring performance and did not manage to preserve himself, missing the opportunity to kill the game in the second set. No longer able to accelerate, he seemed to run out of legs and experienced another drop in speed in the second set, then briefly in the fourth and fifth games of the third. A performance all the more worrying as all of the eighths will be played from Tuesday April 30. The Spaniard will therefore have very little time to replenish his reserves before facing the Czech Jiri Lehecka, 30th in the world.
