Rafael Nadal Falls at Cincinnati’s Opening Match

Rafael Nadal’s Tuneup for the U.S. Open wasn’t as planned.

Nadal fell to Borna Coric of Croatia in his first match at the Western & Southern Open, Mason, Ohio. He was 6-2 down (9), 4-6 and 6-3 in Wednesday’s second round.

Nadal was the French Open’s reigning champion and received a bye in the first round as the tournament’s second seed. In the Cincinnati-area tournament, the Spaniard won the 2013 title. This was his first match since an abdominal tear forced him to pull out of Wimbledon before the semis.

Neither of the players broke serve during the opening set. Nadal held the first two sets points in tiebreaker. Coric converted his third point to save both sets.

Nadal served for an early 4-3 lead, and then levelled the match. Coric was also in the lead at 4-2.

Earlier Wednesday saw the American duo of Ben Shelton, and John Isner perform for their home fans as they each won unexpected wins.

Shelton defeated fifth-seeded Casper Rudd from Norway, 6-3, 3-3. Shelton was the NCAA singles champion from Florida and won 22 HTML6 percent) of his points. He also won all nine of his services games.

At just 19 years old, Shelton is in his ATP Masters 1000 debut at the Cincinnati-area event. He’s been playing well up until now, but he is still trying to get used to the challenge of playing against some of the top players on the tour.

” “I believe you have to make it look easy until you get it right,” Shelton stated. “If I don’t feel completely at ease in the beginning, I will do my best until I get settled in .”

” I find it easier to cope with these situations. It helps me keep my heart beat down, and makes me feel calmer on the court .”

Isner won a 7-6(5), 66-7(5) and 6-2 win over No. Hubert Hurkacz, 8th seed from Poland. After a boy fell on the court, Isner, Hurkacz and Hurkacz had to stop play for the second round.

” According to Isner, the child is doing well.

No. 11 seed Taylor Fritz of the United States was also a winner, beating Australian Nick Kyrgios 6-3, 6-2.

But not every American prevailed in their second-round contest, as Tommy Paul fell to Canada’s Dennis Shapovalov 3-6, 6-4, 6-3, and qualifier Marcus Giron was on the losing end of a 6-3, 6-3 result with 15th-seeded Spaniard Roberto Bautista Agut.

Other than Rudd and Hurkacz other seeded rivals took care of the business.

Fourth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas from Greece defeated Serbian Filip Krajinovic. Russian sixth seed Andrey Rublev beat lucky loser Fabio Fognini, of Italy. 7 seed Felix Auger-Aliassime of Canada beat Australia’s Alex de Minaur and 10th-seeded Italian Jannik Sinner edged Serbian Miomir Kecmanovic after he retired in the second set.

In other news, No. Cameron Norrie, 9th seed from Great Britain, defeated Andy Murray, 6-6, 6-3 and 6-4.

The final match was an all-American encounter in which Sebastian Korda beat Frances Tiafoe 4-6, 6-1 and 6-4.