Nadal takes time to hit his stride
Nadal takes time to hit his stride
Second seed Rafael Nadal made a slow-burning start to
his Wimbledon campaign on Tuesday, taken to a tie-break by Brazilian
Thomaz Bellucci before picking up speed to win 7-6 6-2 6-3.
The twice champion, and French Open winner this year
for a record seventh time, was 4-0 down in an hour-long first set as his
timing went awry on his return to Centre Court.
Any alarm was momentary with Nadal fighting back to 4-4
and winning the eventual tiebreak 7-0. The press box benches that had
filled halfway through the set emptied just as swiftly knowing that
normal service had resumed.
The world number two took just half an hour more to go
two sets up and wrapped up proceedings in two hours 15 minutes.
