Triple French Open champion Rafael Nadal began his bid to
conquer Wimbledon with a 6-3 7-6 6-3 victory over American Mardy
Fish on Tuesday.
Fish, who has now failed to beat the powerful Spaniard in all
four of their meetings, ultimately had no answer to Nadal's brutal
groundstrokes, relying on his serve to get points on the board,
with 17 aces in the match.
"I had my usual doubts because I hardly had any matches to
practise (on grass)," second seed Nadal told reporters.
"I think I feel very comfortable on court, so I'm very happy
about my game today. But it's just the first round," said the
21-year-old who spent a few days off at home in Majorca after
losing in the quarter-finals of Queen's earlier this month.
He added that while he had not found the chilly, windy weather
difficult, his game was more suited to sunny conditions.
"It's better with the sun like last year. The ball, you can feel
a little bit more... With the sun, (the ball) is a little bit
slower, the ball is getting a little bit more topspin than like
this," the claycourt specialist said.
Fish, the world number 38 held out until the sixth game of the
first set when he put the ball out to give Nadal a break point and
then handed it to him with a double fault.
Nadal, beaten finalist at Wimbledon last year, found Fish harder
to crack in the second set, wasting his two break points before
taking the tiebreak 7-4 when the American sent a forehand long.
Fighting to the end, Fish had two break points himself in the
fifth game of the third set but was unable to convert them.
Nadal set up the decisive break with a forehand shot that Hawk
Eye showed was in by a whisker and he won the game for a 5-3 lead
courtesy of another Fish double fault. The left-hander then served
for the match, sealing it with an ace.
Nadal, aiming to become only the third man in the Open era to
hold the Roland Garros and Wimbledon titles in the same year, will
face Austrian Werner Eschauer in the second round.
(China Daily via Reuters June 27, 2007)