Spanish tennis great Rafael Nadal raced away with the first seven games of the match to set up a routine straight-sets victory over Italian veteran Andreas Seppi in the second round of the US Open.
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A few spots of rain midway through the second set brought the closure of the Arthur Ashe roof for the first time and Nadal also closed out a tighter second set at the crucial time, breaking at 5-6 to take the set and a stranglehold on the match. It took about 5 minutes to close and play resumed.
After dealing with rain delays and postponed finals for years, the USTA finally built a movable roof over its main stadium.
Nadal had the distinction of hitting the first practice and match ball under the closed roof. Both Nadal and Seppi were surprised by just how many interruptions there were from fans, either moving around in the stands or simply being loud.
Defending champion Novak Djokovic is ready to let his racket do the talking about how his body is holding up at this year’s U.S. Open.
When the USTA unveiled the roof to the media for the first time on August 2, it was revealed that 2.6 billion tennis balls can fit within the stadium bowl with the roof closed. Before the roof was closed, the two were tied 3-3 in the second set, but the Spaniard said he didn’t mind the noise and he seemed to get his second wind with a dome overhead.
Rafael Nadal, of Spain, looks up at light rain during a match against Andreas Seppi, of Italy, during the U.S. Open tennis tournament, Wednesday, Aug. 31, 2016, in NY.
“It’s great to be the first player to play with the roof closed, on the competition, because I was the first player to hit in the centre court with the roof closed, ‘ said Nadal, who found ‘no big difference” on the court with the roof closed. “I need to have the confidence again with my wrist”. I’m coming back from an injury.
“There was a little bit more noise than usual”, Nadal says. That’s my feeling. Today I didn’t feel the change’. “I was playing on adrenaline”, said 24-year-old qualifier Harrison, who was as high as 43 in the world in 2012.
NY crowds, long recognised as the rowdiest in tennis, have created a unique problem not found in Wimbledon’s more intimate setting where fans observe tennis etiquette or the Australian Open’s Rod Laver Arena, which has about half the seating capacity (14,850) as Arthur Ashe.
She needed three sets to win her first-round match Monday, when she struggled with her breathing.
On Friday, he will face Andrey Kuznetsov and talking about his Russian opponent, the two-time former US Open champion said, ‘He is a very tough opponent.
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Halep said in her on-court interview that she liked the calm conditions of playing indoors but she was “a little bit cold”. “We knew that. And it’s something the players will deal with and the fans will deal with”.
