On a day when Rafael Nadal looked largely unlike the confident, commanding clay-courter we've watched for so long, it was fitting that the five-time French Open champ lost one of the best points he played. That was the third point of the third-set tiebreaker, with Nadal already up 2-0 and by two sets against Pablo Andujar. The extended rally forced both men to hit every shot from everywhere on the court, but the Spaniard who hit the winner—it would have been wrong to end this exchange with an error—was Andujar, who has one clay-court title to his name.
No, Nadal was never in control today, yet he still managed to win in straights, 7-5, 6-3, 7-6 (4). A spotty opening set was a sign of things to come, as Nadal wore a grim visage, much like he did against John Isner in round one. Andujar played well—he earned eight set points in the third set, which he once led 5-1—but Nadal's serve was the bigger reason for his struggle. Throughout the day, Nadal failed to consolidate his breaks and experienced pressure on nearly all his service games in the roller-coaster third set. Down 5-1, I wondered if Nadal would simply pack it in and move on to the fourth. But that's exactly when the Rafa of old reappeared, the player who would never relent, even if he was down 5-0.
From then on, even if Nadal's serve wasn't at its peak, everything else was. He certainly should have been forced into a fourth set—besides dodging the set points, Andujar gave away a key point in the tiebreaker, down 4-5, when his drop shot from a commanding position barely made it halfway up the net. But three it was to be, as the top seed moves on to face Antonio Veic, a qualifier who beat Nikolay Davydenko in five sets. It's an easier third-rounder, no question, but right now the question is less about Nadal's opponents' form and more about his own.
—Ed McGrogan