Rafael Nadal avoided a rare injury scare on Thursday to get to the third round of the US Open after accidently hitting himself with his own racket.
Fabio Fognini of Italy was upset by the Spaniard 2-6, 6-4, 6-2, 6-1, but only after the Italian had an odd self-inflicted injury while leading 3-0 in the fourth set.
The four-time winner, who also holds a men’s record 22 Grand Slam championships, suffered an injury to his nose after his racket rebounded off the court as he reached for a ball.
The 36-year-old Australian and French Open winner slammed his racquet to the Arthur Ashe Stadium floor before sprinting to the sidelines and collapsing to the ground while lying on his back and bleeding from the nose.
He had to stop the game for a medical break to get the wound attended to before continuing with a bandage covering his nose.
After winning his late-night match, which included a total of 15 service breaks and 97 unforced mistakes, Nadal will next play France’s Richard Gasquet, against whom he has a 17-0 lifetime record.
In 2015’s US Open, Fognini overcame Nadal after falling down two sets to none.
Invigorated by that memories, the 35-year-old defeated a slow and error-prone Nadal in the opening set by breaking him in the third and seventh games.
After losing the first set in his first encounter against Australian wildcard Rinky Hijikata, Nadal lost the first set in his next two matches in a row.
As Nadal fell down 3-2 in the second set, he was compelled to contact the trainer to treat blisters on his left hand. The first five games of the second set were all breaks.
Prior to Nadal winning the following four games to win the set and tie the match, Fognini built a 4-2 lead.
Nadal had only been able to strike three winners in each of the opening two sets.
The four-time champion, though, went on to treble the amount of victories he had previously recorded to take the third set against a suddenly demoralised Fognini, who had a medical break to have his right foot wrapped.
When his odd injury briefly prevented him from moving on to the last 32, Nadal had already cruised to a 3-0 lead.