Whether it is reasonable to sign up for Rafael Nadal’s repeated assertion that he does not lose sleep over passing Roger Federer’s record of 20 majors, it is easier to accept that Melbourne is the place where the Spaniard who is parked on 19 grand slam titles – 12 of them on clay – will find it hardest to do exactly that.
Nadal has won one Australian Open title, in a five-set epic against a prime Federer in 2009, and lost in four other finals: once versus Federer, twice to Novak Djokovic, and in 2014 when Stan Wawrinka broke a career 12-0 duck against him to win the first of his three major titles and then show Melbourne that the Swiss know how to have a good time.
On day two of the first grand slam tournament this season, Nadal could hardly have been more at ease in gliding into a second-round meeting with the Argentinian Federico Delbonis.
The Spaniard managed a two-hour workout – 6-2, 6-3, 6-0 – against another South American clay-courter, Bolivia’s Hugo Dellien, who looked like a fish who had landed on a riverbank. There are not many windows left for any of the Big Three in this race to the end of the rainbow.
He demurred, as he often does. “I don’t care about 20 or 15 or 16,” he said. “I just care about enjoying my tennis. It is not, like, 20 is the number that I need to reach. If I reach 20, fantastic. If I reach 21, better. If I reach 19, super happy about all the things that I did in my tennis career, no? The Spaniard next plays the American wildcard Michael Mmoh, who defeat Agut’s stylish compatriot Pablo Andújar in less than two hours.
He received his Team Canada gear for the Youth Olympics a week before Christmas and his mom says she’ll never forget her son’s reaction when it arrived.
“It was so fun. It was better than Christmas. He was opening the box and we went through it together,” Janis said.
It’s a silver-medal start for the young Canadian. And Liam thinks this is just the beginning. “I want to do this again. I want to be at the Olympics. Today was awesome,” he said.
