Wimbledon, 2nd Round, Thursday, 30.06.2022
Is he not as fit as thought after all? Rafael Nadal has had quite a turbulent, problematic start to Wimbledon. The foot injury handicaps him a lot, so that the question also arises in the 2nd round:
Can the painkillers really solve everything? Bet365 doesn’t want to know anything about a sensation, but of course his opponent has his hopes up.
Read in my Berankis Nadal tip why I would bet on a relatively large number of games!
There was a lot of guesswork around Rafael Nadal. He won his 22nd Grand Slam title at the French Open, but mixed performances alternated with real gala performances. The reason: painkillers.
The injury in his foot has affected the Spaniard for years, and he openly admits to getting injections to get fit. After Roland Garros, he withdrew, and for a long time it was not clear whether he would fly to London at all.
He did, but announced: There will be no painkillers on the sidelines this time. It is unclear whether he will really keep it up. He entered the match with a 6-4, 6-3, 3-6, 6-4 against Francisco Cerundolo, and he was quite lucky.
The Argentine could have gone 4-1 up in the fourth set, but in the end Nadal was able to prevent the equaliser. Particularly striking were the many break chances that the old champion gave away.
He conceded 18 to Cerundolo, but the latter was only able to make use of four. This was also one of Nadal’s weaknesses, as he only converted six of his 14 chances.
He can be forgiven for these weaknesses, as he has not played on grass for three years. A semi-final in 2019 is his last result at Wimbledon. It is already eleven years since Nadal last reached the final here.
On the plus side for him, Matteo Berrettini is down with Corona, Hubert Hurkacz is out, Alexander Zverev is injured and Daniil Medvedev is suspended. Apart from Novak Djokovic, who also had problems, only a few top favourites seem to be there.
The Majorcan already played against Ricardas Berankis in Melbourne earlier this year, winning 6-2, 7-5 here. As many problems as he had in the 1st round, there are still no two opinions among our tested bookmakers.
Not even a 1.05 is available on average for a win by the favourite. Ricardas Berankis will have closely followed everything Frencisco Cerundolo has tried. He should know: Nadal is down for the count!
Due to the bans on Russian and Belarusian athletes, the number 106 was allowed to start directly in the main draw. Here he showed a performance that not everyone had expected of him.
He won 6-4, 6-5, 6-3 against Sam Querrey, a great start. He did not concede a single break and won 85% of his first serve points. The Lithuanian is only 1.75m tall, but he serves surprisingly powerfully.
This is the fourth time he has reached the 2nd round at Wimbledon, he has never gone further. Tsonga, Cilic, Lopez, he has lost to these three in the last few years, twice in more than three sets.
My Berankis Nadal Tip
Predicting Rafael Nadal matches is extremely tricky these months. Of course, even I don’t know how his foot will be on Thursday. But the problems from the 1st round were already glaring.
Ricardas Berankis surprised with a great performance and his serve was also top. Of course, I still favour Nadal, but my tip still goes in a direction that doesn’t foresee a win in a hurry:
We see more than 28.5 games!
