sport news Rafael Nadal marches into third round of Wimbledon with four-set victory over ... trends now
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The man of many tics just keeps ticking over. We are yet to see the best of Rafael Nadal at these championships, not even close, but he is fidgeting and twitching his way through the generous half of the draw.
So far that has meant a four-set hobble past a Wimbledon debutant on Monday and another in this moderate slog against the limited weaponry of Ricardas Berankis on Thursday.
On paper, it will resemble decent progress, but on grass everything becomes a little more nuanced for Nadal, and conceding an aggregate of two sets and six service games to players with a combined ranking of 147 is less than intimidating. Novak Djokovic, the top seed at the other extreme of the ladder, won’t exactly be shuddering.
Rafael Nadal secured his place in the third round of Wimbledon by beating Ricardas Berankis
Despite admitting he wasn't at his best, Nadal was still able to make progress at Wimbledon
The relief for Nadal is he has time to adjust to the green stuff under his chronically painful feet. That is because defeats and covid has stripped a number of the more serious contenders from the 36-year-old’s section, with the upshot being he wouldn’t meet anyone ranked higher than 11th seed Taylor Fritz before
