ATP Finals: More knee concerns as Rafael Nadal is beaten by David Goffin

23:54 · MON November 13, 2017

by Andy Schooler, at The O2

World number one Rafael Nadal was beaten by David Goffin at the ATP Finals on Monday amid further concerns about his knee injury.

Nadal’s movement appeared restricted and he pulled up on one low ball as he slipped to a 7-6 (7-5) 6-7 (4/7) 6-4 defeat at London’s O2 Arena. He later announced he was withdrawing from the tournament.

It was the biggest win of the Belgian’s career – he had come into the match with a 2-22 record against top-five-ranked players and having never beaten an incumbent number one – but that achievement was overshadowed by concerns over Nadal, who knows the new season is already less than seven weeks away.

All the pre-tournament talk was about his knee, a long-running issue during his career but one which had largely disappeared until it flared up again in China last month.

Nadal seemed surprised as Goffin made a flying start, one which saw him break in the third game.

He should not have been. Goffin had vowed to be aggressive at Friday’s media day and appeared to be carrying his plan to perfection, striking the ball as crisply as one could wish.

Rafael Nadal: Knee concerns continue

However, you wondered whether it could be sustained and sure enough a sloppy sixth game saw him double-faulted and net lamely to hand the advantage away.

Still, Goffin, who will lead Belgium into a second Davis Cup final in three years later this month, broke again to lead 6-5 only to throw up another error-strewn game.

He looked wracked with nerves, appearing to ease off and wait for Nadal errors, rather than replicating the aggressive play which has got him into a good position in the first place. He then produced two double faults as the set headed into a tie-break.

It was almost a microcosm of the set itself – Goffin twice edging ahead before being pegged back - but the climax was reached when Nadal netted a backhand to lose the breaker 7-5.

The first half of the second set meandered, both players holding serve comfortably while still producing more errors than winners.

Goffin appeared to go in for the kill in the eighth game, bringing the crowd to life with a stunning forehand pass before repeating the trick on return to leave himself serving for the match.

But with the finish line in sight, the nerves returned. The aces that had hit double figures dried up and were replaced by another suicidal double fault when break point down.

However, a backhand down the line in the next game set up the Belgian’s first match point only for him to go wide on it.

Nadal was back to 5-5 but looked troubled by his knee in the following game, appearing to pull up when chasing a low ball.

Moments later he was staring over a precipice at 0-40 only for two big forehands and a booming backhand to get himself out of trouble. At least Goffin could have few regrets this time.

There was an air of inevitability about the ensuing tie-break, Nadal racing into a 6-2 lead as the fans chanted his name, before taking it 7-4.

Goffin’s head must have been spinning and the general consensus among the crowd would have been Nadal would now sweep to victory.

That view would prove to be wrong.

The winning moment for @David__Goffin against Rafa Nadal…#NittoATPFinals pic.twitter.com/cDFwK6NBPi
— Tennis TV (@TennisTV) November 13, 2017

A miserable drop shot from the Spaniard saw him broken in the third game of the decider and the trouble deepened when in his next service game he sent a forehand wide to trail by a double break at 4-1.

Nadal, a fighter until the bitter end, managed to retrieve one of the breaks but when Goffin stepped up to serve for the match an hour after first doing so, this time he made no mistake, finishing the contest with his 14th ace.

What Goffin said

"On paper it's the best win of my career, for sure, to beat Rafa. But, yeah, I saw that he was struggling a little bit with his movement on the court, and his knee was suffering a little bit.

"It was tough even if he was not moving 100 per cent. He was hitting the ball really hard. It was not easy. It's never easy to finish a match, to finish a set against him.

"Even if I lost four match points in the second, I had no regret. I kept going in the third."