By Marc McGowan
Alex de Minaur has become the first Australian to defeat the legendary Rafael Nadal on clay, at the Barcelona fortress named in his honour.
Nadal was playing just his third match this year after withdrawing from Monte Carlo and Indian Wells, following him also aborting plans to contest the Australian Open in the wake of his loss to another Australian, Jordan Thompson, at Brisbane.
Rafa Nadal shows his dejection after missing a point against Alex de Minaur during their match.Credit: Getty Images
The former world No.1, winner of 22 grand slam titles, has strongly hinted this will be the last season of his brilliant career.
There were no post-match histrionics from de Minaur after the 7-5, 6-1 victory despite the size of his scalp, fully aware he had toppled a diminished version of the clay-court king, who is a 12-time Barcelona champion.
At 37 years of age, Nadal was using a protected ranking to even play because of injuries, most notably a serious hip setback, that kept him off the tour for much of the past two years and saw him tumble to No.644 in the world.
De Minaur joined the Spanish crowd in giving Nadal a standing ovation as he trudged from the court, knowing it was almost certainly the last time he will contest the event.
“It was an unbelievable experience to be able to play Rafa on his court, in front of a packed crowd,” de Minaur said.
“When the draw came out, I probably wasn’t too keen on playing Rafa, but I turned my attitude around and looked at it like a huge opportunity, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, so I was extremely happy I was able to get the win and move on.
“I can probably say I’m very, very fortunate I didn’t play Rafa a couple of years earlier on the clay – it would have been a very, very different result – but it was an amazing experience, and it’s been a great year.”
De Minaur broke Nadal to start the match but the 14-time French Open winner levelled at three-all and earned a break point that could have propelled him 5-3 ahead in the first set, only for the Australian to hang tough.
That proved the decisive moment.
Alex de Minaur plays a forehand in beating Rafael Nadal in Barcelona.Credit: Getty
Using a barrage of drop shots to expose Nadal’s increasingly laboured movement after repeated punishing baseline exchanges, the in-form de Minaur snatched another break to go 6-5 up before securing the opening set.
Nadal struggled from that point on, conceding serve three more times as his younger rival lost only two points on his own serve in the second set.
De Minaur struck 21 winners to Nadal’s 11, while also committing far fewer errors (26 to 42), with the Spaniard’s resistance broken for good after he tried valiantly to rise to the occasion in the fifth game of the second set.
Nadal raised his fist in triumph after going on the attack to force a de Minaur error, but uncharacteristic misses on the next three points left him two breaks down.
“I think probably the only thing I might have [over] Rafa on clay is maybe physicality at this stage of his career,” de Minaur said afterwards.
“So, I decided to make the rallies quite physical and long, and used my speed to my advantage and, of course, try to be the one dictating and make him move, but it’s never easy against him.”
It was just Nadal’s fifth loss in Barcelona compared to 67 wins, with Dominic Thiem (2019), Fabio Fognini (2015), Nicolas Almagro (2014) and Alex Corretja (2003) the only other players to beat him at the tournament.
De Minaur, whose best results at the ATP 500 event were making the semi-finals in 2022 – when he held a match point against Carlos Alcaraz – and quarter-finals a year later, is enjoying a strong start to the clay-court season.
He reached the quarter-finals in Monte Carlo last week before losing a competitive clash with world No.1 Novak Djokovic as he tries to reclaim a top-10 ranking.
De Minaur, seeded fourth in Barcelona and ranked No.11, has a good opportunity to climb the rankings with many of those ahead of him not playing this week. A potential showdown with nemesis and Monte Carlo winner Stefanos Tsitsipas awaits in the semi-finals.
The 25-year-old is enjoying his best season on tour, having kick-started his campaign with the top-10 scalps of Taylor Fritz, Djokovic and Alex Zverev at the United Cup in January.
De Minaur went agonisingly close to advancing to his maiden Australian Open quarter-final before reaching the Rotterdam final, winning the Acapulco title for the second year in a row and making the last 16 at Indian Wells and Miami.
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