Rafael Nadal, the third-ranked player in the world, returns to tennis on Thursday when he plays Borna Coric, who is rated 152nd, in the second round of the 2022 ATP Cincinnati Open.
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When Rafael Nadal laboured against Taylor Fritz in the Wimbledon 2022 quarterfinal, it was not a pretty sight. Though Nadal put up a valiant fight and eventually defeated his opponent in five sets, there was a small concern as to whether he would have permanently damaged his abdominal muscle. He ended up having to drop out of his semifinal, and he hasn’t played since. Nadal has been out for almost six weeks. The good news is that Nadal is returning on a court where he now has a 20-1 season record in wins and losses. He has already won three titles, including the Australian Open, and he just finished second in the Indian Wells Open, the last hard court match he played in.
The 33rd-ranked player in the world, Lorenzo Musetti, favours clay courts to hard ones. And Borna Coric, who entered the game as a 7/5 outsider to win, made the most of that. Coric defeated Musetti 7-6 (2), 6-3 in a match that lasted an hour and 51 minutes to advance to the second round. Coric lost his serve just once throughout the entire match, but it was his consistency on the court that carried him to victory. He won 74% of his first serve points and 69% of his second serve points. The fact that this was Coric’s second victory on a hard court this season makes it even more remarkable. The Croat was coming off first-round losses in Indian Wells and Miami earlier this year as well as a loss to Marin Cilic in Montreal’s first round.
Rafael Nadal and Borna Coric are scheduled to face one another in the second round of the 2022 Cincinnati Open on Thursday, August 18. The tournament is scheduled to run from August 14 till August 21.
The 2022 Cincinnati Open will see six rounds of action excluding the qualifiers. These include the round of 64, round of 32, round of 16, quarter-finals, semi-finals and final for both men’s and women’s. The tournament is scheduled to commence on August 14 and conclude on August 21 this year.
| Competition Stage | Date |
| Round of 64 | August 14 , 16 |
| Round of 32 | August 16 , 17 |
| Round of 16 | August 18 |
| Quarter-finals | August 19 |
| Semi-finals | August 20 |
| Finals | August 21 |
| Player | Seed |
| Daniil Medvedev | 1 |
| Rafael Nadal | 2 |
| Carlos Alcaraz | 3 |
| Stefanos Tsitsipas | 4 |
| Casper Ruud | 5 |
| Andrey Rublev | 6 |
| Felix Auger-Aliassime | 7 |
| Hubert Hurkacz | 8 |
| Country | Where to watch |
| Australia | beIN Sports |
| Canada | TSN/Sportsnet/TVA Sports |
| India | Voot/Sports18 |
| UK | Amazon Prime Video |
| US | Tennis Channel |
