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On Saturday, Rafael Nadal humbled Richard Gasquet at Flushing Meadows, thrashing the Frenchman 6-0 6-1 7-5 as he breezed into the fourth round of the U.S. Open.
Gasquet is currently 0-18 versus Nadal, so losing to the Spaniard is nothing new for him, but the Frenchman has rarely taken such a beating.
Nadal was in a race to regain his form when he arrived at Flushing Meadows having only played one match since withdrawing from the Wimbledon quarterfinals due to an abdominal injury.
Nadal felt there were glimpses of improvement against Gasquet after two grueling four-set victories over Italian Fabio Fognini in the second round and Australian wild card Rinky Hijikata in his opening match.
To challenge for a fifth U.S. Open title, which would tie him with Jimmy Connors, Roger Federer, and Pete Sampras for the most in the Open Era, the 36-year-old conceded he would need to significantly improve.
The next opponent for Nadal is American hopeful Frances Tiafoe, who advanced after defeating 14th-seeded Diego Schwartzman of Argentina 7-6(7) 6-4 6-4.
Nadal referred to Saturday’s victory as “my finest match in the tournament, without a doubt.” “A significant advancement. But I must keep moving on.
“My best match in the tournament, easy,” Nadal said of Saturday’s win. “An important improvement. But I need to keep going.
“I know this is the right moment to make an improvement if I want to keep having chances to keep going on the tournament. Today was an improvement. I need another important improvement for the next day.”
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