{"id":6006,"date":"2018-01-15T11:16:58","date_gmt":"2018-01-15T16:16:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/?p=6006"},"modified":"2018-01-15T11:16:58","modified_gmt":"2018-01-15T16:16:58","slug":"2018-australian-open-rafael-nadal-dominates-victor-estrella-burgos-in-first-round","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2018\/01\/15\/2018-australian-open-rafael-nadal-dominates-victor-estrella-burgos-in-first-round\/","title":{"rendered":"2018 Australian Open: Rafael Nadal dominates Victor Estrella Burgos in First Round"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Top seed\u00a0<strong>Rafael Nadal\u00a0<\/strong>put to rest any doubts about his fitness as he eased to a comfortable 6-1, 6-1, 6-1 victory over\u00a0<strong>Victor Estrella Burgos\u00a0<\/strong>in the first round of the\u00a0<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordontennis.com\/australian-open\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Australian Open<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>in just 94 minutes.<\/p>\n<p>Expected to comfortably progress, it was a dream start for the 2009 champion as he held to love and took advantage of the Dominican&#8217;s wayward forehand. At 15-40, Estrella Burgos saved the first break point with an ace, but another forehand sprayed long gifted Nadal the early break.<\/p>\n<p>Facing little resistance on serve, the Spaniard went about securing another break and he got it when he broke to 30 for a 4-0 lead, the forehand again letting Estrella Burgos down. Two games later, Estrella Burgos finally got on the board with a hold to 15, but it only delayed the inevitable as the 16-time major champion closed out the opening set with a delicious drop shot winner.<\/p>\n<p>The first game of the second set provided the point of the match, Estrella Burgos putting together a combination of drop shot-lob volley before closing out the point with a drop volley to go up 30-15. He was soon down break point and this time, the Dominican&#8217;s backhand went astray and Nadal was already in the lead.<br \/>\n<a id=\"TFW9e15aRZFhYeTWzD-kkA\" class=\"gie-single\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/905074490\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"color:#a7a7a7;text-decoration:none;font-weight:normal !important;border:none;display:inline-block;\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'TFW9e15aRZFhYeTWzD-kkA',sig:'GCp-SCYAYpboaomh324HFWI-NJewvbtrbP2Y8kkZv0k=',w:'396px',h:'594px',items:'905074490',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><br \/>\nAgain, it was the top seed on the attack, holding still with maximum comfort and he was up 15-40 on the Estrella Burgos serve. His forehand finally going on to save the first break point, that same wing again let him down on the second and Nadal was blazing to a quick 3-0 lead.<\/p>\n<p>Continuing to look razor sharp, the Spaniard was applying (if possible) even more pressure with another chance to break, duly taken on his second opportunity when Estrella Burgos sailed a backhand long. The Dominican would have his moment, though, breaking Nadal on his sixth chance of the very next game, a wonderful forehand\/drive volley combination earning rapturous applause from the crowd for his hard work.<\/p>\n<p>Order was restored in the next game when Nadal set up break point at 30-40, his forehand already in mid-season form. The game and set were in the books when the Dominican slapped another forehand long, the Spaniard looking as good as can be with a two-set lead.<\/p>\n<p>The third set was a mere formality and the top seed was on his way, another comfortable hold and a break to love, Estrella Burgos contributing four unforced errors as the wind was completely out of his sails now. It was full cruise control now, a double-fault by the Dominican to hand Nadal a 4-0 lead in a game he led 40-15.<\/p>\n<p>Avoiding a bagel with a sumptuous volley from the service line (his only effective area of the court in the match), he forced Nadal to serve it out; the Spaniard duly answering with a love hold and an emphatic win. The two men exchanged a warm embrace at the net and the top seed can be pleased with his opening effort in Melbourne.<\/p>\n<p>Nadal will next face\u00a0<strong>Leonardo Mayer\u00a0<\/strong>in the second round, the Argentine taking a set in their\u00a0third round\u00a0<strong>U.S. Open\u00a0<\/strong>encounter. With a more steady and solid game than Estrella Burgos plus a better serve, Mayer will test Nadal a bit more, but it&#8217;s hard to see how he can win this match.<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo:<br \/>\n<a id=\"28N8ZZFaQ7tTfjhZjp1xgg\" class=\"gie-single\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/905074152\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"color:#a7a7a7;text-decoration:none;font-weight:normal !important;border:none;display:inline-block;\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'28N8ZZFaQ7tTfjhZjp1xgg',sig:'DVE_u0qc2OH01s4IBolEDM9HP96HIvNLKMR8mX7wsCM=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'905074152',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Top seed\u00a0Rafael Nadal\u00a0put to rest any doubts about his fitness as he eased to a comfortable 6-1, 6-1, 6-1 victory over\u00a0Victor Estrella Burgos\u00a0in the first round of the\u00a0Australian Open\u00a0in just 94 minutes. Expected to comfortably progress, it was a dream start for the 2009 champion as he held to love and took advantage of the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":755,"featured_media":6016,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7,3,2,9],"tags":[2137,135,2438],"class_list":["post-6006","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-australian-open","category-atp","category-featured","category-news","tag-2018-australian-open","tag-rafael-nadal","tag-victor-estrella-burgos"],"modified_by":"Yesh Ginsburg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6006","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/755"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6006"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6006\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6016"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6006"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6006"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6006"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}