If Rafael Nadal was hoping to ease his painful left foot back into action after nearly two months off tour, that’s hardly what happened in his Citi Open debut, which ended after just two matches.
A night after needing three sets and more than three hours to get by, Nadal was eliminated 6-4, 1-6, 6-4 by 50th-ranked Lloyd Harris of South Africa under the lights on Thursday, August 5, at the hard-court tournament.
Harris hit 16 aces and took advantage of Nadal’s admittedly problematic serve.
The match ended when Nadal got broken for the second time, with Harris dropping his racket in disbelief after delivering a lob winner.
“I played this last game really bad,” said Nadal, a 20-time Grand Slam champion who was seeded No. 1 in Washington. “My serve was not working the proper way.”
This was less of a physical tug-of-war between a pair of heavy hitters than Nadal’s victory over 192nd-ranked Jack Sock on Wednesday.
The one bit of good news for Nadal on Thursday was that he said his injured foot felt better.
About 3 1/2 hours before entering the U.S. Open tuneup’s main stadium to face Harris, Nadal had made his way to tiny Court 5 for a training session.
As fans shouted “Vamos, Rafa!” and snapped photos and video with their phones from the stands at an adjacent court, Nadal didn’t do much running, mostly staying in place while hitting groundstrokes and practicing volleys, serves and returns for 45 minutes with Emilio Gomez, a 29-year-old from Ecuador who is ranked 165th and lost in the Citi Open’s first round.
Not at all taxing by Nadal’s usual exacting and exhausting standards.