Home ›› 02 Jul 2022 ›› Sport
Some days at the office are bit of a grind, even if in Rafa Nadal’s case his place of work on Thursday was Wimbledon’s sunny but chilly Centre Court for a match against Ricardas Berankis.
The second seed duly won 6-4 6-4 4-6 6-3 to reach the third round but his 307th Grand Slam match win, putting him one ahead of Martina Navratilova and fourth on the all-time list, will not linger long in his memory.
An off-key Nadal never looked in serious danger of having his bid for the calendar-year Slam wrecked by the world number 106, but he knows he will have to play much better in the rounds ahead to claim his third Wimbledon title.
The statistics rather told the tale with Nadal unusually making more unforced errors than winners -- 39-35.
“Not the best start honestly but I finished playing well. The fourth set has been the level of tennis for me, important improvement. The rest of the things I have room to improve,” Nadal told reporters.
“But, yeah, it’s a victory in four sets, spend three hours on the court again, that helps.”
Gauff launches fastest serve twice
American Coco Gauff made jaws drop as she launched a 122 mile per hour (mph) rocket and 124 mph effort across the net in the Wimbledon second round on Thursday, the fastest serves so far in the women’s tournament.
Facing Romania’s Mihaela Buzarnescu on Centre Court, the 18-year-old phenom forced her opponent into a forehand error to close the fifth game of the first set with the power serve.
She followed that with the 124 mph stunner in the second set, before closing out the match 6-2 6-3 to set up a third-round clash with compatriot Amanda Anisimova.
The 12th-ranked Gauff exploded onto the global stage at Wimbledon in 2019 when she reached the fourth round of the grass-court major at just 15 years of age.
