ATP Barcelona - Wednesday Schedule: Rafael Nadal starts his run
A packed Wednesday is about to happen in Barcelona. Félix Auger-Aliassime will open the schedule against Malek Jaziri, followed by David Ferrer and Lucas Pouille. The Frenchman leads head to head meetings 2-0 having won in 2016 Miami and Rome. After that Rafael Nadal opens his campaign against Leonardo Mayer. The Spaniard will seek his sixth win over six matches played. The Argentinean only won a set against Nadal in the 2017 US Open, they last faced each other in last year's Australian Open. The match between Grigor Dimitrov and Fernando Verdasco is expected to be a very balanced one. They are tied on 3-all and the Bulgarian won their most recent match in 2018 Canada. They first faced each other in 2013 Bastad with Verdasco prevailing in three. Denis Shapovalov will play against Christian Garin, the Canadian won the 2016 Davis Cup tie match. Daniil Medvedev will play against Albert Ramos, Nikola Kuhn faces Roberto Carballes.
Before the Barcelona Open, coming from his loss to Fabio Fognini in the Monte Carlo Masters semifinals, Nadal said: "My personal opinion is that I played one of the worst matches on clay. It's a reality. There is no need to hide it. I do not see the benefit of wanting to deny it. What has happened has happened. In Monte-Carlo, I took a step forward with how I was a week before. I lost a good opportunity to start the season in a fantastic way. But now I'm going to have another one. This is a very special tournament that is part of the history of tennis and of my own. I have another morning to practice, and we will see how we are doing. On a physical level, I'm more or less well.”
from Tennis World USA http://bit.ly/2L0858K
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