{"id":389557,"date":"2024-04-30T23:37:21","date_gmt":"2024-04-30T23:37:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=389557"},"modified":"2024-05-01T01:04:23","modified_gmt":"2024-05-01T01:04:23","slug":"nadal-given-heros-goodbye-after-madrid-loss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=389557","title":{"rendered":"Nadal given hero's goodbye after Madrid loss"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rafael Nadal<\/a> couldn't overcome Jiri Lehecka in likely his last appearance at his home tournament in Madrid.<\/p>\n

Two-time defending champion Carlos Alcaraz<\/a> needed nearly three hours to defeat Jan-Lennard Struff 6-3, 6-7 (5), 7-6 (4) and reach the quarterfinals. Nadal, a record five-time champion in Madrid, struggled from the start in a 7-5, 6-4 loss to 31st-ranked Jiri Lehecka.<\/p>\n

Both Spaniards are coming off injuries and are trying to get back in shape ahead of next month's French Open. The 20-year-old Alcaraz had missed tournaments in Monte Carlo and Barcelona. The 37-year-old Nadal had played two matches in Barcelona after not playing competitively in nearly three months.<\/p>\n

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The 22-time Grand Slam champion arrived in Madrid saying he wasn't fully fit and was worried about his condition, but in the end was celebrating having won three consecutive matches without showing significant physical limitations.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/BBCSport\/status\/1785437882565464524?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw<\/a>https:\/\/twitter.com\/MutuaMadridOpen\/status\/1785430532463239421?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw<\/a>https:\/\/twitter.com\/TennisTV\/status\/1785441316089827467?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw<\/a><\/p>\n

The loss will likely mark Nadal's final time competing at the tournament he has won a record five times, with 2024 expected to be the final year of his career.<\/p>\n

An emotional Nadal remained on court after the match as he received a special\ufeff presentation, with five banners picturing Nadal's record five wins as Madrid said goodbye to the champion player.<\/p>\n

Nadal even chuckled when when two of the banners got stuck. When all the banners were in place, Nadal grabbed the microphone\ufeff.<\/p>\n

"It has been a very special and positive week in many ways. I have had the opportunity to play again in this game that has given me so much on a sporting and emotional level," he said.<\/p>\n

"A few weeks ago, two days before going to Barcelona, \u200b\u200bI didn't know if I could compete in an official match and I was able to play for two weeks. All I can do is say thank you, it has been an incredible journey.<\/p>\n

"The first time I arrived competitively in Madrid, in 2005, it was one of the most exciting victories I have had. To this day it has only been unconditional support and affection from everyone. I can only say thank you."<\/p>\n

Nadal had only one break opportunity against the big-serving Lehecka who has won all his three matches in straight sets.<\/p>\n

"It's amazing to share a court with such a legendary player. It's a dream come true; I always wished for this to happen," Lehecka said.<\/p>\n

"I'm very grateful to achieve such a big moment and all the best to Rafa. It's kind of bittersweet to have such a nice win in front of all these people who were cheering for him. The energy was amazing."<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The second-seeded Alcaraz was coming off two comfortable victories in Madrid but struggled on Tuesday. He squandered four match points against the 24th-ranked Struff while serving at 5-3 but converted on his first opportunity to seal the victory in the deciding tiebreaker at the Caja Magica centre court.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wasn\u2019t at my best physically toward the end of the match, but I\u2019m happy that in the end I found my game,\u201d Alcaraz said. \u201cI fought for every ball and didn\u2019t let down despite some difficult moments when things didn\u2019t go my way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alcaraz is trying to become the first player to win three straight Madrid Open titles. He also needed three sets to beat Struff in last year's final. The world No.3 will next face seventh-seeded Andrey Rublev at the clay-court tournament.<\/p>\n

The 20-year-old Alcaraz had not played in Monte Carlo and Barcelona to try to fully recover ahead of the French Open. He beat Alexander Shevchenko and Thiago Seyboth Wild in straight sets in his first two matches in Madrid.<\/p>\n

Top-seeded Jannick Sinner defeated 16th-seeded Karen Khachanov 5-7, 6-3, 6-3 to reach the Madrid quarterfinals for the first time. He is the only player to make it to the quarterfinals at all four ATP 1000 events this season.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think today was really tough, because at some points he served really well, so it was tough to return,\u201d Sinner said. \u201cI made a couple of mistakes in the first set when he broke me, but this can happen. In the second set I tried to stay focused immediately, I broke him, and the confidence level raised a bit."<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rafael Nadal couldn't overcome Jiri Lehecka in likely his last appearance at his home tournament in Madrid. Two-time defending champion Carlos Alcaraz needed nearly three […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":389559,"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\/389557"}],"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=389557"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389557\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":389560,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389557\/revisions\/389560"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/389559"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=389557"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=389557"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=389557"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}