French Open: Rafael Nadal knocked out in 1st round in potential Roland Garros swansong

Rafael Nadal’s return to the French Open ended on a sour note as he was knocked in the first round on May 27, Monday by 4th seeded Alexander Zverev.

The German was able to get the better of the 14-time French Open champion with a scoreline of 3-6, 6-7, 3-6. Nadal, who was playing his first Grand Slam match of the year after missing out on the Australian Open, produced some vintage shots throughout the game as the fans were firmly behind the Spaniard. Coming in as the underdog in the contest, Nadal produced some stunning tennis, but it wasn’t enough in the end to beat Zverev, who got his revenge for the exit in the semi-final of the 2022 French Open. The match between both men lasted 3 hours and 5 minutes. This was Nadal’s third loss at the French Open in his entire career.

Nadal was given a great reception by the crowd inside the Philippe-Chatrier court when he came on. However, the match started off in a shaky manner for the former World No.1. Zverev broke Nadal’s serve right away and raced to a 2-0 lead.

Nadal was able to come back and the game was 4-3 but the German seemed to be in control of things and soon found himself on the verge of winning the first set. Nadal continued to show his defiance saved a couple of set points, but it was just delaying the inevitable in the end. Zverev was able to break in the end and took home the first set 6-3.

The second set saw Zverev continue his fine serving to take the first game but Nadal forced the German to make a few mistakes in the second one to make it 1-1. Zverev’s fine serving continued as he made it 2-1 and was on the verge of breaking Nadal once again and taking a 2-game cushion. This is when Nadal rolled back the years to show his champion spirit as he saved break points and pushed Zverev to the limit.

Nadal won 4 games on the trot to make it 2-2 and there was a the pumped up former World No.1 made a jump to celebrate the win, riling up the crowd. Then Nadal would battle to break Zverev and take the lead in the second set as the crowd came unglued. The German came back again with the serve as it continued to be a weak point for Nadal.

Zverev seemed to be in line to break Nadal but the Spaniard produced a vintage shot after stretching his opponent to come back and make it 5-3.

However, Zverev refused to be overwhelmed by the situation and made a sensational come back to take back the lead and be in control of things. But Nadal would push the game into a tie-breaker as Novak Djokovic, Iga Swiatek and Carlos Alcaraz were in attendance to see the Spaniard. But Zverev continued to be incredible with his serve and took the second set as it seemed like Nadal’s run could come to an end.

The Spaniard wasn’t ready to give up without a fight and what we saw was him take a 2-0 lead with some incredible bit of tennis as the fans were cheering on every point won by Nadal.

Zverev was able to break Nadal and make things 2-2 as the match tipped well over the 2 hour and 30-minute mark. The next game would see both men battle it out for more than 10 minutes as Nadal delivered an incredible ace to make it deuce for the 4th time. Zverev took the advantage but Nadal once again had caught out the German with a fine serve to level things up again. An error from Zverev gave Nadal the game point for the first time and then take the lead.

Zverev was finally able to get his focus back and levelled things up before breaking Nadal to take the lead. The Spaniard would retaliate in the next game and had a chance to break Zverev but the German produced some stunning shots to extend the lead to 5-3.

Zverev would then take on the serve from Nadal to see off the game and won the match to proceed to the second round. Nadal got an ovation from his opponent and the crowd to possibly end his chapter at the French Open.