Tum deal for Nadal

 

Originally published on: 26/02/10 12:47

Nadal stayed on course for a possible semi-final date with Britain’s Andy Murray when he knocked out fellow Spaniard Nicolas Almagro, the 32nd seed, 7-5 6-4 6-4 in two hours and 39 minutes.

The victory, however, was overshadowed by the aggravation of a right abdominal injury during the third set, one he had first suffered last month during his Cincinnati Masters semi-final defeat to Novak Djokovic.

“I feel it a little bit now,” Nadal said of his injury during an on-court interview. “I will try my best to recover for the next match.”

Yet during his post-match press conference the 23-year-old refused to elaborate on the nature of his problems.

“No, I don’t want to talk about injuries,” he said. “Sorry. No, no, I am a little bit tired to talk about injuries.

“I am here to try my best every day.

Nadal was not the only casualty but at least he reached the fourth round. Ninth seed Gilles Simon retired hurt with a knee injury early into the fourth set of his third round tie against Juan Carlos Ferrero. The Frenchman was trailing the Spanish 24th seed by two sets to one and had been broken in the first game of the fourth set.

Sixth seed Juan Martin del Potro, a potential quarter-final opponent for world number two Murray, also had an injury scare during his 6-1 3-6 6-3 6-3 victory over Daniel Koellerer of Austria.

Seventh seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga won the all-French battle with world number 43 Julien Benneteau 7-6 (7-4) 6-2 6-4 and will now meet 11th seed Fernando Gonzalez of Chile, who eliminated number 17 Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic 7-5 6-4 6-4.

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