NEW YORK - Rafael Nadal overcame a freak injury scare when he accidentally hit himself with his own racket to reach the US Open third round on Thursday. The Spaniard defeated Italy's Fabio Fognini 2-6, 6-4, 6-2, 6-1 but only after suffering a bizarre self-inflicted injury...
Nadal goes on to face France's Richard Gasquet against whom he boasts a 17-0 career record after coming through his late-night scrap which saw a total of 15 breaks of serve and 97 unforced errors.Buoyed by that memory, the 35-year-old swept through the first set with breaks in the third and seventh games against a sluggish and error-plagued Nadal.
It was the second successive match in which the Spaniard had dropped the first set after suffering the same fate in his opener against Australian wild card Rinky Hijikata. The first five games of the second set were all breaks with Nadal forced to call the trainer to treat blisters on his left hand at 2-3 down.
Fognini stretched to a 4-2 lead before Nadal reeled off the next four games to take the set and level the tie.The four-time champion, however, then doubled his winners count to grab the third set against a suddenly dispirited Fognini who needed a medical timeout to have his right foot bandaged. Nadal coasted to a 3-0 lead when his bizarre injury temporarily stalled his progress to the last 32. - AFP