The unusual blow to the nose that Rafa Nadal suffered in his comeback against Fognini at the US Open

Everything seemed well on its way to getting a ticket for the third round of the US Open Rafael Nadal. But the Spaniard did not have a very pleasant memory of the duel against the Italian Fabio Fognini, which complicated him in several steps of the match. It is that when he was averaging the fourth and final set, the Mallorcan’s racket bounced off the concrete and hit him straight in the nose, causing him to bleed.

Immediately, Nadal released his game element and put his hands to his head, denoting it he had felt the impact. In fact, she walked alone to his chair, where she lay down waiting for medical attention. Slight dizziness and bleeding in the nasal septal areaThey sowed concern.

It was the fourth game, when the Spaniard was in the lead 3-0 and was on his way to victory, but after forcefully repelling a backhand on the right side from the back of the field, the racket bounced quickly against the concrete and hit him in the center of the face.

“A little dizzy at first and painful, but I’m fine. It happened to me with a golf club, not a racket.”joked Nadal, at the end of the match against Fognini, which allows him to stay on track towards the title and even to recover the 1st place in the world rankings.

And that duel wasn’t easy. Because there was uncertainty when the Italian, always dangerous when he was free, had taken the lead 6-2 and 4-2 in the first leg of the match. But from there Nadal was a steamroller who did not allow Fognini to react.

“I tried to play better, somehow I try to feel better on the pitch, I felt nothing, I hadn’t competed for an hour and a half, maybe it was one of the worst beginnings of my career. You have to remain humble and understand the situation.” , he analyzed.

The truth is that Nadal won in four sets with halves of 2-6, 6-4, 6-2 and 6-1 to meet the Frenchman Riccardo Gasquet in the next instance.