Without truce from the beginning, the New York asphalt devoured its first draft victims. Before Rafael Nadal jumped on the track Arthur Ashe to debut against John Millman, four members of the top ten , had said goodbye: Dominic Thiem, fourth seeded series, Stefanos Tsitsipas, eighth among the favorites, Karen Khachanov, ninth, and Roberto Bautista, tenth, was outside the United States Open. Alexander Zverev, sixth preclassified needed five sets to move forward and in the Spanish dawn of Tuesday, until Roger Federer himself, five times champion of the tournament, a partial was left before Sumit Nagal, an Indian from the previous phase.

Away from the storm on his side of the table, Nadal went ahead with a convincing match, winning the Australian 6-3, 6-2 and 6-2, in two hours and seven minutes. Millman, 60, a working tennis player who came to the meeting with the credit of having knocked down Federer last year in the round of 16 of the tournament, lacks weapons with which to unbalance an adversary of Nadal's characteristics, much less when he it develops with the firmness and resolution of which it showed.

Suffice it to note that the biggest dislike of the three-time champion in New York was caused by the warning he received before starting the ninth game for exceeding 25 seconds to serve. Angry, he addressed the chair judge arguing that he was ready to execute the serve but was delayed by the turmoil in the audience. After the game, and with the partial on his side, he raised his criticism.

Pleasant from beginning to end

Very alive with legs, full of energy, added to the electrifying atmosphere of the night, Nadal broke in the fourth of the first set and did it again in the fifth and seventh of the second, opening a gap that proved insurmountable for Brisbane's , who, however, battled with dignity even with a break down in the third. Recent winner of the 1000 Masters of Canada, the Spaniard maintained the constants demonstrated in his measured shooting on cement, effective in the most direct game that has been imposed for a long time, from an outstanding efficiency with the service. "The beginnings are never easy, but in general I played a good game, my service worked well, although perhaps I made some mistakes with the 'drive'," he said at the foot of the track once the victory was completed.

After the injury that forced him to retire last year in the semifinals when he lost with Juan Martín del Potro, Nadal is clear that he needs to walk through the tournament without the wear and tear he was then subjected to in the second week. Millman gave him the advisable pace in a competition start, but he hardly demanded it. Lleyton Hewitt, who knew in his own flesh the emergence of the left-hander, attended from the box of his countryman another sample of the maturity of world number two, which on Thursday will be measured in the second round to another Australian, Thanasi Kokkinakis, 203º, a who was crowding a promising future before his career was stopped for severe physical setbacks.

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  • Rafael Nadal
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