Nadal Admits Unpredictability in Win over Cachín Ahead of French Open Preparation

Rafael Nadal acknowledged that his performance is currently more unpredictable than it used to be as he carried his winning streak at the Madrid Open with a difficult triumph over Argentine Pedro Cachín. The Spaniard, who has struggled with injuries this year and only participated in three tournaments prior to arriving in Spain’s capital city, prevailed 6-1, 6-7 (5-7), 6-3 after almost three hours on court yesterday evening.
“I can’t predict what will happen tomorrow or the level I am going to show tomorrow,” Nadal said during his post-match press conference following Monday’s contest. “It has been like this for quite some time and, honestly, that is something new.” He added: “Nobody knows how you wake up [Tuesday] morning and what can happen overnight.”
The world No. 91 Cachín shared his delight at facing Nadal in a post-match interview with the Spaniard on court after their encounter ended, then asked if he could keep one of his purple shirts or towels as keepsakes from this memorable evening. The former World No. 1 obliged and handed over an item to Cachín before both men left Centre Court.
After comfortably securing the opening set against Cachin, Nadal found himself in a much tighter contest during the second set when he dropped serve twice as his Argentine rival sensed blood and began to push him harder than at any point throughout their encounter so far. The Spaniard saved two set points before finally recovering from 3-5 down to force a tiebreak, which Cachín edged by five points to four after Nadal hit a forehand wide of the line when attempting to level the match up again.
The deciding third set saw Nadal assert his dominance as he ground out the victory following another closely contested contest that had gone all the way down to the wire, with Cachín unable to prevent him from securing only his second three-setter of 2023 so far after defeating Alex de Minaur in round two.
Nadal will now face Czech Republic’s Jiří Lehečka on Tuesday afternoon as he continues his quest for a sixth Madrid Open title and further preparation ahead of the French Open, which gets underway at Roland Garros next month.