KEY BISCAYNE, Fla.—Despite his initial hopes of winning the Miami Open for the first time after four runner-up finishes, Rafael Nadal retired in his opening-round match due to illness while trailing Damir Dzumhur, 2-6, 6-4, 3-0.
Though Dzumhur is nowhere near the experience level of Nadal, the 23-year-old world No. 94 managed to last in the conditions a little bit longer than the 14-time Grand Slam champion to score his biggest career victory.
“Well, everything was fine until the end of the first set. I start to feel myself not very good,” Nadal said. “It’s getting worse, worse and worse, so finally in the second set I realized I was not able to keep playing. I tried to resist. I get a little bit scared to be too dizzy… So I call the doctor a couple of times, but I felt that I was not safe there so I decided to go.”
It was certainly hot today, with temperatures in the 80s, minimal cloud cover and high humidity. But it’s something a champion like Nadal is used to. Before the tournament began, the world No. 5 was asked about the conditions, saying simply, “It's not very hot. It's very humid. That's it.”
Dzumhur himself wasn’t feeling well at the start of the match, but wanted to enjoy a rare chance of playing against what he calls a “big guy.”
“It’s definitely not the way I wanted to finish,” Dzumhur said. “It was very tough to play today. I felt also really tired, heavy. In some moments dizzy on the court in the first set… Between the first and second I called a medical [timeout]. I was thinking really about retirement.”
The ending was disappointing for everyone. Nadal’s game looked to be improving, especially after a semifinal showing last week in Indian Wells.
“I was playing well during the match at the beginning, too,” Nadal said. “When you have something like this, then its impossible. Was tough for me because I felt myself that I was playing well. I had a good practices after playing a great week in Indian Wells. It’s a hard accident, but that’s life, and it’s like this.”