Nadal grinds past Berankis into Wimbledon third round

I am staying at home and not going out any more, said Rafael Nadal on the COVID-19 outbreak in Wimbledon

Some days at the office are a bit of a grind, even if in Rafa Nadal’s case his place of work on Thursday was Wimbledon’s sunny but chilly Centre Court for a match against Ricardas Berankis.

The second seed duly won 6-4 6-4 4-6 6-3 to reach the third round but his 307th Grand Slam match win, putting him one ahead of Martina Navratilova and fourth on the all-time list, will not linger long in his memory.

An off-key Nadal never looked in serious danger of having his bid for the calendar-year Slam wrecked by the world number 106, but he knows he will have to play much better in the rounds ahead to claim his third Wimbledon title.

The statistics rather told the tale with Nadal unusually making more unforced errors than winners -- 39-35.

“Not the best start honestly but I finished playing well. The fourth set has been the level of tennis for me, important improvement. The rest of the things I have room to improve,” Nadal told reporters.

“But, yeah, it’s a victory in four sets, spend three hours on the court again, that helps.”

Lithuanian Berankis struck the ball crisply and matched Nadal for long periods but gifted away a scrappy first set when he chose the worst possible time to hand over his serve with a bunch of poor errors, when trailing 5-4.