Wimbledon 2022: 3 Factors that stood out in Rafael Nadal's 3R win over Lorenzo Sonego

Second seed Rafael Nadal of Spain thrashed 27th seed Lorenzo Sonego of Italy 6-1, 6-2, 6-4 on Saturday to move into the last 16 of the Wimbledon Championships. The match lasted for almost two hours as the 27-year-old Italian could not put up any significant resistance to Nadal.

The 36-year-old Nadal, who has won Wimbledon twice, thus remains on course for his third Grand Slam title this year. He also improved his record to 17-0 in Grand Slams in 2022 with the victory.

On that note, let’s take a look at three factors that stood out in the match:

#1 Nadal romped past Sonego in the first set

Rafael Nadal was off to a flying start in the first set as he broke Sonego in the fourth and sixth games. The Italian could not break back and allowed Nadal to walk away with the first set. The set was over within half an hour as Nadal got a firm grip on the match.

Nadal’s crosscourt forehand with a lot of spin had Sonego in trouble as the latter struggled to deal with it. The Italian often came up with a backhand slice in response, which provided Nadal with a short ball that the Spaniard could dispatch easily. Moreover, Nadal often rushed the net to hit a few volley winners to make things even more difficult for Sonego.

Sonego struggled to win points off his first serve in the opening set despite having a big serve. He won less than half of his first-serve points in the first set.

#2 Nadal continued his clinical performance in the second set

Rafael Nadal once again made a perfect start to the second set and raced to a 4-0 lead, breaking Sonego in the first and third games. The Italian managed to win his next two service games, while Nadal also won his own service games to win the set.

Nadal’s crosscourt forehand continued to pose problems to Sonego’s backhand in the second set as well. Sonego also hit some of his groundstrokes long while attempting to play them higher by imparting a fair amount of top spin on them. However, towards the end of the set, Sonego started hitting his forehands a lot flatter and managed to cut down on the number of unforced errors.

Lorenzo Sonego also went to the net more often in the second set, but Rafael Nadal responded with crosscourt backhand passing shots to win the points. The Spaniard also hit a few crosscourt return winners off his backhand.

#3 Sonego came up with an improved performance in the third set, but Nadal managed to get over the finish line

Lorenzo Sonego came up with an improved performance in the third set

Rafael Nadal once again went up a break to lead 2-0 in the third set and maintained the lead until the score was 4-2. However, Sonego broke back to level the score at 4-4. Nadal then broke the Italian in the ninth game of the set and served out the match comfortably.

Sonego came up with a much improved performance in the third set by being more disciplined in his shotmaking, but Nadal prevailed during key moments. The Spaniard was also superb while going to the net and hit a few imperious volley winners.

Nadal hit 24 winners in the match against Sonego’s 19 and both players committed 17 unforced errors each. However, the Italian could only win 56% of the points off his first serve, while Nadal managed 78%.