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Australian Open: Nadal beats Mmoh in straight sets in Melbourne
The 20-time major champion completed the match against the 177th-ranked Mmoh in 1 hour, 47 minutes and said it was a “positive evening for me.”
Rafael Nadal shrugged off some heckling from a spectator before beating American qualifier Michael Mmoh 6-1, 6-4, 6-2 in the second round of the Australian Open.
Nadal was serving for the second set at 5-4 when a woman yelled out and made hand gestures as he prepared to serve. She yelled again at 30-0 and stadium security escorted her out of Rod Laver Arena. The rest of the crowd started booing and Nadal laughed.
He went back to work after the brief delay and hit two aces to finish off the set.
The 20-time major champion completed the match against the 177th-ranked Mmoh in 1 hour, 47 minutes and said it was a “positive evening for me.”
Except for one thing. He was asked if he knew the woman who caused the delay. He responded by saying no and added: "honestly I don’t want to know.”
More than 21,000 fans attended Melbourne Park on Day 4. The Australian Open is the first major in a year to allow sizeable crowds with the government allowing up to 50% capacity. No fans were allowed at the U.S. Open because of the COVID-19 pandemic and the number of spectators at the French Open was extremely limited.
Meanwhile, Fabio Fognini and Salvatore Caruso clearly still hadn’t had enough of their all-Italian second-round duel at the Australian Open even after four hours and five sets.
A heated exchange started at the net after the 16th-seeded Fognini rallied from 5-1 down in the tiebreaker to win the first match between two Italian men at the Australian Open in the professional era. Fognini won 4-6, 6-2, 2-6, 6-3, 7-6 (12).
The initial exchanged seemed to cool down as the players went back to their courtside chairs but restarted twice. A tournament official eventually intervened to break them up.
Fognini wasn’t in any mood to apologize at his post-match news conference. He said he wouldn’t discuss the exchange and that he and Caruso are good friends and will speak soon.
The 33-year-old Fognini and the 28-year-old Caruso have never played against each other at tour-level but were practising together last month.
Fognini says it's tough “when you play against a guy from the same country."
