The official argument is "fatigue." In fact, despite being registered, Rafael Nadal's loss in the Cincinnati Masters 1000, the last weight tournament before the US Open, has more to do with the careful planning of his calendar, in which he converges with Novak Djokjovic and Roger Federer, who chose Ohio instead of Montreal. Champion for the fifth time in Canada after liquidating Daniil Medvedev in the final, the Spaniard already showed that he would not play the two tournaments of the North American cement tour when he was interviewed on the court by Brad Gilbert and commented that he would study the decision with his team. Fatigue, little, because he played four games, which more placid. Only Fabio Fognini was able to beat him a set, before injuring himself on one foot. Gael Monfils, with whom he had to measure himself in the semifinals, did not even appear, after finishing touched on an ankle after an intense duel with Roberto Bautista.

The cement imposes. It is a surface of maximum demand for the joints of a Nadal who must treat with care his battered knee, always threatened by an outbreak of tendonitis. In 2018, after winning in Canada and resigning in Cincinnati, he retired due to injury when he lost in the semifinals of the United States Open to Juan Martín del Potro and did not play again in the rest of the season.

Gone are courses like the one in 2013, when he won the title in Canada and Cincinnati to summit after taking the second of his three titles in New York. The third would arrive in 2017, with hardly any previous pronouncements: it fell in the third round in Canada and in the fourth in Cincinnati.

The big three carefully choose their scenarios, attentive to the historical bid they maintain in the four majors. Once again: Federer, 20, Nadal, 18 and Djokovic, 16. Nadal has played 10 tournaments, which will prove his two main opponents after passing through Cincinnati. The left-hander also resigned from Miami after failing to appear before Federer in the Indian Wells semifinals, then eroded by a very tough quarterfinal match against Khachanov.

If Montreal was a fight between Nadal and the generation that does not finish arriving, won conclusively by the Spaniard, Cincinnati suggests a similar interpretation, this time with Djokovic, defender of the title and five times finalist, and Federer, seven times champion of the tournament and runner-up last year, in defense of the prevailing order.

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  • Rafael Nadal
  • Roger Federer
  • Novak Djokovic
  • US Open

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