The Spanish tennis player Rafael Nadal achieved a comfortable 6-1, 6-0 victory against the American Darwin Blanch, in the first round of the ATP Masters 1000 in Madrid.
Nadal, who is probably playing his last tournament in Spain (there is a good chance that he will retire at Roland Garros or the Olympic Games), did not give opportunities to his young rival, only 16 years old, who never found a way to complicate the game for the king of brick dust.
Nadal was very restrained in his shots and transfers, although this was enough for him to beat the American promise without problems and in just over an hour of play, who was very irregular and committed a large number of unforced errors.
In this way, Nadal entered the second round of the Madrid Masters 1000, a tournament he won five times (2005, 2010, 2013, 2014 and 2017). His next rival will be the Australian Alex de Minaur (11th in the world), who has just eliminated him last week in Barcelona.
The national representatives started off on the right foot in Madrid.
Mariano Navone achieved a valuable victory against the Australian Alexei Popyrin and will have a tough test in the second round, where he will go against the Dane Holger Rune.
Another good news for Argentine tennis was the triumphs of Facundo Bagnis and Pedro Cachín, who was able to end a streak of 15 consecutive defeats. The first of them will play in the second round against the Russian Andrey Rublev, while the second will face the American Frances Tiafoe.
The only one who could not win was Facundo Díaz Acosta, who fought against Canadian Denis Shapovalov, but finally fell in three sets.
The other players in the second round are Sebastián Báez, Francisco Cerúndolo and Tomás Etcheverry, who begin their participation in this instance by being pre-classified. His rivals will be Luca Van Assche, Fábián Maroszan and Denis Shapovalov, respectively.
Regarding the female branch, Lourdes Carlé gave the big blow and entered the third round by beating Veronika Kumerdétova (17th seed), Nadia Podoroska lost to the American Emma Navarro.
