Cincinnati, Luca Nardi makes the most of his second chance
Reported as ‘lucky loser’ into the main draw of the Cincinnati Masters 1000, Luca Nardi (who had been defeated in the final round of qualifying by Belgium’s Blockx) made the most of his second chance, beating Argentina’s Thiago Agustin Tirante in the first round of the main draw and thus advancing to the second round of the competition on the concrete in Ohio.
It was not an easy match for Nardi: despite the 37 position difference in the rankings (number 98 the’Italian, number 135 the’opponent of the day), the two tennis players battled for two hours, with Nardi winning at the end with a score of 6-4, 7-6(5), the result of a first set in which the native of Pesaro made good use of the two game lead already at the beginning of the match and a second in which instead he was good at coming back from 1-3 and 3-5.
In the final of the second set, among other things, Nardi saw a first match point cancelled by Tirante at 6-5 (40-30), but in the tie-break he did not tremble except for a moment at 5-2 (Tirante won two points in a row coming close at 5-4), before closing on his third match point overall, the second of the mini-game that effectively decided the match.
In the second round Nardi will take on one of the seeded players who were able to take advantage of a ‘bye’ to skip the first: this is Denis Shapovalov, a Canadian, currently 30th in the rankings but also in the Top 10 in the not-too-distant past. It will be another chance for Nardi to prove his worth, making everyone forget that he is a ‘lucky loser’.
