{"id":389277,"date":"2024-04-30T01:01:40","date_gmt":"2024-04-30T01:01:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=389277"},"modified":"2024-04-30T03:06:00","modified_gmt":"2024-04-30T03:06:00","slug":"rivals-bizarre-request-after-nadal-thrashing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=389277","title":{"rendered":"Rival's bizarre request after Nadal thrashing"},"content":{"rendered":"

After taking more than three hours of Rafael Nadal's<\/a> time on court, Pedro Cachin wanted one more thing from the 22-time Grand Slam champion.<\/p>\n

Nadal's shirt.<\/p>\n

Cachin, an Argentine with one career ATP title, stretched Nadal over three sets in their first match-up. Nadal won their third-round match in the Caja Magica and Cachin was eager to meet him at the net.<\/p>\n

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\u201cYou made my dream come true for me, thank you,\u201d Cachin said. \u201cIt\u2019s not how the protocol is, but can I get your shirt, towel or something?\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, I\u2019ll give it to you, of course,\u201d Nadal responded. \u201cGood luck with everything.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nadal shook hands with the chair umpire and waved to the crowd before going to his bag.<\/p>\n

He grabbed one of his match shirts and a bandanna and gave them to Cachin.<\/p>\n

"It's beautiful," Cachin said later on Instagram.<\/p>\n

"Thank you Rafa, it was a dream."<\/p>\n

Nadal's body withstood its toughest test yet at this Madrid Open in the 6-1, 6-7 (5), 6-3 win over the 91st-ranked Cachin.<\/p>\n

He didn't show any signs of physical limitations in a victory that earned him a spot in the round of 16 at the clay-court tournament where he is the record five-time champion.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/TennisTV\/status\/1785000495834120197?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw<\/a><\/p>\n

"It's positive, now I don't feel that something went wrong on my body, but I need to wait until tomorrow, being 100 per cent honest," he said. "I am trying my best to keep dreaming. Tomorrow is another day to keep dreaming. To keep playing in front of this amazing crowd and, to me, that means everything."<\/p>\n

Nadal will next face 31st-ranked Jiri Lehecka. He said he needs "to find a way to be able to play days in a row and still be competitive."<\/p>\n

"I don't know if I am in that moment yet," the 22-time Grand Slam champion said. "Let's see what can happen tomorrow."<\/p>\n

The 37-year-old Nadal is trying to get in shape for next month's French Open. Since his latest injury layoff, he's had two matches in Barcelona and was pessimistic about his physical condition after arriving in Madrid. But he's won three more times in the capital.<\/p>\n

Nadal again looked comfortable early on against Cachin. The Argentine rallied in the second but was broken twice while serving for the set before eventually prevailing in the tiebreaker.<\/p>\n

\"Vintage<\/p>\n

Nadal didn't look as loose in the final set, but did look tired. He wasn't as consistent with his shots but picked up three breaks to seal the victory to the delight of the local crowd in the Caja Magica.<\/p>\n

"I took more risks in the third set, but it's hard after so many months without competing," Nadal said. "I hadn't played a match like this in a long time. I don't know how I'm going to wake up. But I'm already happy for having won three matches in a row."<\/p>\n

Top-seeded Jannik Sinner was not at his best but had enough to defeat Pavel Kotov 6-2, 7-5. Sinner, who has been dealing with a hip issue, will face 16th-seeded Karen Khachanov.<\/p>\n

"I have been struggling a little bit with my right hip," Sinner said. "We're trying to find a solution and I don't think it's anything serious. Sometimes I feel it more like today and some days are a little bit better."<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After taking more than three hours of Rafael Nadal's time on court, Pedro Cachin wanted one more thing from the 22-time Grand Slam champion. Nadal's […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":389279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389277"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=389277"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389277\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":389282,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389277\/revisions\/389282"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/389279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=389277"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=389277"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=389277"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}