Tenacious Nadal downs wild card Hijikata US Open return

Second seed Rafael Nadal faced a surprise test in his first US Open appearance since winning the 2019 title, as he overcame 21-year-old Australian wild card Rinky Hijikata 4-6 6-2 6-3 6-3 on Tuesday in the opening round.

Playing in only his second match after pulling out of Wimbledon with an abdominal injury, the Spaniard had speculated whether he was ready to take on New York and seemed to confirm those fears as he struggled on the return in the first set. Hijikata incredibly broke the 22-time major winner with a crisp overhead shot in the seventh game of his Grand Slam debut, bringing the crowd to a roar.

“I started not that bad the first couple of games, but then I had some opportunities that I was not able to make,” Nadal, 36, said after the match. “I didn't play a good game with my serve. Then he had the break. Then I was a bit nervous.

“But it was Goliath who got the momentum over David under the bright lights of Arthur Ashe Stadium, as a steadfast Nadal charged through the first three games of the second set, improving in virtually every respect as his opponent's form deteriorated.

He dropped just one of his first-serve points with few mistakes, as Hijikata racked up a dozen unforced errors and dropped his serve in the final game of the frame. Thriving on familiar territory, the four-time Flushing Meadows winner Nadal never faced a break in the third set and broke Hijikata to love in the fifth game of the final set before recovering from 0-40 in the eighth to hold his own serve.

Hijikata gave the rowdy New York crowd a final thrill as he defended four match points in the ninth before succumbing to Nadal's vicious forehand winner, only weeks after recording his maiden Tour-level win in Los Cabos.

The win extends Nadal's unbeaten streak in Grand Slam competition this year, after he won the Australian Open and Roland-Garros, with the world number one ranking on the line in New York in a depleted men's draw.

The evening was a clear boost of confidence, after a demoralising defeat in his first match back from injury in Cincinnati

Cameron Norrie beat Benoit Paire 6-0 7-6(1) 6-0 in a strange first-round clash, where the Frenchman at times appeared not to be making maximum effort.

The first set was all one-way traffic as the seventh-seeded Briton took advantage of Paire's errors to bagel him in just 18 minutes.

Paire stepped up his game in the second set when play was briefly halted amid sweltering conditions as a fan required medical attention, and he even had a chance to level the match when he served leading 5-3. But the veteran could not capitalise and was broken in the next game and out gunned in the one-sided tiebreak.

The final set lasted just 15 minutes as Paire appeared content to make his exit from the tournament.

“It's tricky, especially with how Benoit plays,” Norrie said when asked about playing against someone who at times did not appear to be trying to win.

“Because he looks like he's not really there and he can come up with a few good shots and a few big returns. In that third set he was love-30 a couple times, 15-30, and that's when he's very dangerous. I think he's an exciting player to watch and he's a really nice guy.”

He later added: “It's unfortunate, I think he played a little bit too quick, and at the end of the day I went out and did my job.”