US OPEN: Nadal Overcomes Shaky Start

Rafael Nadal overcame a shaky start and later hitting himself in the face with his own racquet – to beat Fabio Fognini in the US Open second round.

The Spaniard lost the first set and was 4-2 down in the second before recovering to secure a 2-6 6-4 6-2 6-1 win over the Italian.

Nadal also drew blood after hitting himself in the nose with his racquet during the closing stages of the match.

“I was a little bit dizzy and it was a little bit painful,” said Nadal.

He was hurt when his racquet bounced back off the court as he stretched for a ball and the 36-year-old needed a medical timeout after the incident.

“At the beginning I thought I broke the nose because it was a shock,” added Nadal.

“[There’s a] little bit of pain but [I’m feeling] good.”

The 22-time Grand Slam winner did not let the issue impact him as he closed out the match comfortably – a contrast to the way he started against Fognini, who defeated Nadal from two sets down at the US Open in 2015.

Nadal made 27 unforced errors in the first two sets and dropped serve five times, including four in a row, before improving and setting up a third-round tie against 36-year-old Frenchman Richard Gasquet.

“Happy after a terrible start. I don’t understand yet how I started that bad because the feeling before the match was good,” said Nadal.

“But these kind of things sometimes happen so you need to accept and keep going. That’s what I did.

“I was lucky that Fabio made some mistakes and I was able to start putting some balls in and finished the match playing obviously better, much better.

“I am practising much, much better than what I am playing. That’s a positive thing. Then I need to make that happen in the matches.”

Gasquet, a 2013 semi-finalist in New York, knocked out Serb 32nd seed Miomir Kecmanovic, winning 6-2 6-4 4-6 6-4.