Nadal loses to Fognini from 2 sets up

We all knew that Fognini had a shot at Nadal at this US Open, but we couldn’t really see RAfa losing from 2 sets and 1 break up.

What happened

Rafa was leading 6-3 6-4 2-1 (and 1 break up) to then find himself in a sort of nightmare. Nadal was broken twice to lose the 3^rd set , but eventually he gained another break in the first game of the 4^th set. Funny enough Rafa was broken another couple of times to lose the 4^th set 6-3 and the drama (of course) unfolded in the 5^th set. In the decider we had 7 consecutive breaks (from 2-1 for Fognini to 5-4 to the Italian). The last break was rather ugly as Rafa lost his serve at 0 (well Fognini played great). Eventually the Italian managed to hold serve to win the match 3-6 4-6 6-4 6-3 6-4 in 3 hours and 46 minutes. Match Stats.

Nadal:  He played great

Rafa admitted “He played great. It was not a match that I lost, even if I had opportunities. It’s a match that he won. So accept. I’m not happy that he played better than me, but that’s what happened.

I fought until the last point all the time, with a good attitude. But it was not enough to win today. I lost a couple of matches like that this year… I enjoyed the crowd. Was amazing support out there. Just a very special feeling to be out there with that support.”

Fognini: With Rafa you need to risk

The Italian explained why he was over-aggressive “Well, with Rafa you have to try that, because otherwise if you run, he start running at the beginning and you finish at the end of the week. It’s not easy. It is a really special win.

If you want to play against him and if you want to do something different, you have to take risks. That’s the only thing. Probably I make a lot of unforced errors, but it doesn’t matter. You have to do that with a great player who runs a lot on the baseline.”

Next vs. Lopez

Fognini will play another Spaniard (Feliciano Lopez) in the 4^th round.  Interesting enough Fabio and Feliciano have never played against each other.