With just over a fortnight to go until he begins his title defence at Melbourne Park, Nadal was beaten 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 by Cameron Norrie as Spain faced Great Britain at the United Cup in Sydney on Saturday. 

“Not a disaster at all,” declared the 22-time grand slam champion, who was generous in his praise for Norrie while acknowledging the need to sharpen his own movement, consistency and decision-making.

But there was a hint of irritation from Nadal afterwards when asked if he was starting to find life on tour heavy going. Clearly eager to scotch speculation about his future, the Spaniard replied pointedly that he was in town to play tennis.

“When the day arrives that [I] go out on court and say, ‘That’s getting hard,’ [it] is the day to say goodbye,” said Nadal with a smile belying his evident distaste for the line of questioning. “I don’t want to. 

“The only reason that [it] makes sense to keep playing [is] if I really enjoy what I do, and if I really feel it. If I don’t feel it, I mean, I did much more than what I ever dreamed. But either way, for me, I lost my match. That’s it, no? 

“Every time that I am coming to a press conference, [it] seems that I have to retire. So you are very, very interested in my retirement. I mean, for the moment, that’s not the case. When this day arrives, I’m going to let you know, guys. Don’t keep going with the retirement [questions], because I’m here to keep playing tennis.”

Nadal, an Olympic gold medallist in singles and doubles and the linchpin of five triumphant Davis Cup campaigns, has traditionally thrived when representing his country. But after an encouraging start to his first official match since November’s ATP Finals, the Majorcan was slowly reeled in by Norrie, who hailed the victory as the finest of his career.

“I think it was, especially on ranking and beating a guy like Rafa as the competitor that he is,” said Norrie, the world No 14, who was without win a against Nadal in four previous meetings. 

“I know it’s his first match of the year, but it was a sick win. He absolutely chopped me the last five or four times I played him, so it is nice to get him once now. I really played well and held my nerve throughout the match.”

Norrie’s win, which was followed in short space by an outstanding 3-6, 6-1, 6-2 victory for 23-year-old Katie Swan over Nuria Párrizas Díaz, ranked 70th, gave Britain the platform for a 4-1 win over Spain. 

Dan Evans sealed Britain’s place in this Wednesday’s playoff final against either the US, Germany or the Czech Republic with a 6-3, 1-6, 6-3 win over Albert Ramos-Vinolas. Harriet Dart was earlier beaten by world No 13 Paula Badosa, who turned to pickle juice to overcome cramping en route to a 6-7 (6-8), 7-6 (7-5), 6-1 win, before Dart and Jonny O’Mara defeated Jessica Bouzas Maneiro and David Vega Hernandez 3-6, 6-2, 10-5 in the concluding mixed doubles.

Evans afterwards paid tribute to the role played by Tim Henman, the British team captain, in driving his side to victory.

“We all grew up watching Tim, who is obviously a very good tennis player – a lot better than basically everyone on the team. He knows so much,” said Evans.  

“It’s amazing to hear his insight into the match. A lot of the time it can be a bit different to what we might be seeing. You sort of trust that, and it really does help.”

The inaugural mixed-team event consists of six groups of three teams playing across a trio of cities – Sydney, Perth and Brisbane. The two group winners from each location will play a “city final” against each other for a place in the last four, with the best-performing runner-up from those matches clinching the fourth semi-final spot.

In Brisbane, Iga Swiatek and Hubert Hurkacz combined to complete a 4-1 win for Poland over Kazakhstan with a 6-3, 6-4 victory over Zhibek Kulambayeva and Grigoriy Lomakin. The match was notable for an outrageous around-the-netpost winner from Swiatek.

Hurkacz earlier defeated Alexander Bublik 7-6 (10-8), 4-6, 6-3 before Magda Linette gave Poland an unassailable 3-1 lead with a 6-2, 6-1 against Kulambayeva. On day one, Swiatek had handed Poland a 1-0 advantage with a 6-1, 6-3 victory Yulia Putintseva before Timofey Skatov defeated Daniel Michalski 7-6 (9-7), 6-2 to level.

Agnieszka Radwanska’s side will now face Switzerland for a place in the semi-finals, with the top-ranked Swiatek to face Belinda Bencic, the world No 12, in her second singles match of the season on Monday.  

“She’s such an experienced player, and she has a different game style than most of the girls. She’s hitting the ball pretty early and you have to be ready for that, especially on a fast surface,” said Swiatek. “I’m gonna do everything to win.”

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Yet, as Great Britain have themselves demonstrated often enough in recent years, rankings and records tend to count for little in the Davis Cup. A day that began in auspicious style for Smith’s men was to end in frustration as the German pairing of Kevin Krawietz and Tim Puetz saw off Salisbury and Skupski 7-6 (12-10), 7-6 (7-5) in the decisive doubles rubber, surviving four set points in the opener and recovering from 0-5 down in the second-set tiebreak. 

Evans had earlier put the British within touching distance of a semi-final place with a 6-2, 6-1 demolition of Peter Gojowczyk, a late replacement for Dominik Koepfer, but Norrie was unable to find a way past an inspired Jan-Lennard Struff, slipping to a 7-6 (8-6), 3-6, 6-2 defeat.

“I was really disappointed with my level,” said Norrie, who served for the opening set at 6-5 and held two set points at 6-4 in the tiebreak. “I didn’t serve as well as I did in the previous matches. He played some good tennis in some big moments, especially in the third. The first set should definitely have been mine. I served for the first. Couple of loose points. I had a couple of set points, and with chances in the points as well. It could have gone differently. I think I had a good attitude to turn it around and then a chance early in the third, but he played very aggressive in the third set and managed to return well and then serve well when he needed to in the third.”

It was the third successive match in which Krawietz and Puetz have come through in the crunch for Germany in Innsbruck, and Salisbury was blunt in his assessment of a defeat that means Britain will have to negotiate a qualifying tie in March to reach the 2022 finals.

“They played well at the end of the second-set tiebreak, but we didn’t,” said Salisbury, who partnered Rajeev Ram to the US Open title in September and also won the Australian Open alongside the American last year. “I mean, we’re 5-0 up, we should win the tiebreak, simple as that.  They came up with some good shots, but we missed some. I had two points on serve, played two bad points. We lost seven points in a row. There is no team in the world that we should … do that [against]. We tried our best, but it just wasn’t good enough. Obviously we are gutted [about] how it turned out.”

Germany, who advanced to the semi-finals for the first time since 2007, will now travel to Madrid, where they will face either the Russian Tennis Federation or Sweden for a place in Sunday’s final.

“In Madrid there are different conditions,” said Struff. “I think we have now three days to prepare. I mean, it’s a bit more altitude, so the ball will be flying a bit more. The ball was bouncing here pretty high, so let’s see if it’s bouncing more there. It’s very nice to fly with the team. We all said we want to go to Madrid, and reached that aim. Now it’s time to set a new aim to win the semi-finals.”

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Having beaten France in their opening Group C match in Innsbruck, Great Britain were, on paper, the obvious favourites. But as Leon Smith, the team captain, remarked after a hard-fought 2-1 victory, rankings and reputations don’t always mean much in a competition that, for all the turmoil surrounding its current format and future location, retains its power to surprise and enthral.

“You look at the rankings and a lot of people would think it’s going to be straightforward, but it’s never like that,” said Smith. “We’ve seen that time and time again in the Davis Cup. We’ve been underdogs and managed to get wins. The Czech team played really well.”

Tomas Mahac, a richly talented 21-year-old with a silken two-fisted backhand and a surfeit of confidence after beating Richard Gasquet in his opening group match against France, got the Czech team off to a flyer with a 6-2, 7-5 win over Evans. 

Struggling to reach the heights of which he is capable before the empty stands in Austria, where a national lockdown is in place, Evans was unable to contain Mahac’s impressive all-court game, the Czech running away with the opening set before overcoming a 2-5 deficit in the second. It was, as Smith later remarked, as though Mahac “had suddenly turned into a top-20 player overnight”.

“It was a difficult match,” said Evans. “He played well. I didn’t play so well. Got myself in a winning position in the second set and didn’t take it. A bit indecisive really. But the Czech Republic [are] always very tough in Davis Cup. They’ve always got a lot of passion.”

With the pressure on, Norrie defeated the big-serving Jiri Lehecka 6-1, 2-6, 6-1, recovering strongly after some uncharacteristic errors at the start of the second set encouraged the 20-year-old to unleash a barrage of huge shots. Having survived a break point early in the decider, Norrie quickly re-established his momentum, toughing out a lengthy game to earn a break of his own.  

“I played a pretty flawless first set,” said Norrie. “[Then] I came out and I played a couple of loose points, lost my serve, then he definitely raised his level, was very aggressive, hit his spots on the serve. I found myself down 3-0, double break, pretty quickly. All credit to him.

“It was a great win… it was obviously a big match, a must-win match.”

With the tie level, Great Britain’s fate was in the hands of Joe Salisbury and Neal Skupski. Win, and the team would be through to the last eight; lose, and they would be out by virtue of the Czechs having won a higher percentage of sets in the group.

Salisbury and Skupski lost their opening match of the competition, a dead rubber against the French pairing of Nicolas Mahut and Arthur Rinderknech, but the British duo bounced back strongly from that disappointment to see out a 6-4, 6-2 win against Jiri Vesely and Machac.

“Obviously very, very satisfying, very happy to get the win,” said Salisbury, who won this year’s US Open men’s doubles alongside Rajeev Ram and partnered Skupski – winner of the Wimbledon mixed doubles Desirae Krawczyk – to the San Diego Open title last month. 

“We were a bit disappointed with our performance yesterday [against France]. But we were confident we would come back stronger today. Going into it knowing that we had to get the win, I think we kind of embraced that situation. I think it brought the best out of us. Very happy for the team that we’re moving on.”

Great Britain will face Germany, who beat Austria 2-1 to top Group F, in Tuesday’s quarter-finals.

Kevin Krawietz and Tim Puetz won the decisive doubles rubber for Germany, defeating Oliver Marach and Philipp Oswald 6-3, 6-4. Jan-Lennard Struff had earlier hauled Germany back into the tie with a 7-5, 6-4 victory over Dennis Novak, cancelling out Jurij Rodionov’s 6-1, 7-5 win against Dominik Koepfer.

Also through from Group F are Serbia, who qualified alongside Sweden as one of the two second-placed teams with the best match win-loss records. Novak Djokovic and company will face Group B winners Kazakhstan in the quarter-finals.

Serbia went through at the expense of Spain, who were edged out of the quarter-final picture by the Russian Tennis Federation despite an inspired performance by Feliciano López in the opening singles rubber. López, 40, who stepped up for the defending champions after Carlos Alcaraz tested positive for Covid-19 on the opening day in Madrid, came from behind to defeat Andrey Rublev, the world No 5, 2-6, 6-3, 6-4.

“Every time he’s playing here in Madrid, he’s giving his best,” said Rublev. “He’s super focused, controlling his emotions. He’s not complaining at all. He’s giving his best every point. That’s what he was doing today, and he was playing amazing.

“He played some amazing volleys out of nowhere. He was playing really well and he deserved to win.”

Daniil Medvedev levelled the tie for the competition favourites with a 6-2, 7-6 (7-3) win over Pablo Carreño Busta before Rublev and Aslan Karatsev came through 4-6, 6-2, 6-4 in the doubles against Marcel Granollers and López.

“Unfortunately, playing in this format, sometimes you do what you have to do, and you don’t get the prize,” said López. “This is what happened – winning 3-0 and losing 2-1 the way we lost today, [it] is really rare not to qualify. This is why we are so disappointed now, especially myself, giving one point to my team and then going one set up in the doubles. We were very close, but it was not enough.”

The Russian team will face Sweden in the last eight. “Like every time in Davis Cup, it’s going to be a tough match,” said Medvedev. “We know we are the favourites, but in sport, it doesn’t matter all the time. So we just need to show our best tennis to win.”

In the last of the quarter-finals, Italy will host Croatia in Turin. The United States finished second to Italy in Group E after a 2-1 defeat to Colombia that left Mardy Fish, the US captain, in rueful mood.

“You can see the passion for Davis Cup, playing for their country, for the players,” Fish said of Colombia. “You look at the passion that some of these countries have for how they play and how they compete when they were out of it completely. You know, these guys are giving fist pumps every other point. It’s impressive, and it’s something that I hope, as a captain, to strive for and get our players to do.”

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Medvedev landed nearly three-quarters of his first serves against Britain’s Dan Evans, winning 84% of those points and firing a total of 13 aces. He did not drop a single point on serve in the third set. Evans, appearing in the last 16 of the US Open for the first time in his career, had no answer to firepower of such magnitude, and the disproportionate pressure Medvedev’s excellence placed on his own delivery drew his progress in New York to an abrupt halt.

“The serve for me is the thing I think is a bit underrated,” said Evans, the 24th seed, after his 6-3, 6-4, 6-3 defeat. “He goes through his service games very quickly. Everyone knows how well he moves. But I think his serve, and how he goes from deep to up the court so quick, is another very difficult thing to see on television until you play him.”

Evans was outclassed in every department. With Medvedev’s serve all but impregnable, Evans’ hopes of reaching a first major quarter-final rested on his ability to protect his own delivery. That, however, is easier said than done against one of the game’s best returners, and in the fourth game a sumptuous backhand pass from the world No 2 brought up the first break points of the match. A double fault followed from Evans, and from there it was to be an uphill struggle for the Briton. It will be for most players against the Russian.

Medvedev had warm words for his vanquished opponent. “He’s a top player for many years already, so I knew I had to keep my focus from start to finish,” said the second seed, who faces Botic Van De Zandschulp in the last eight after the Dutch qualifier beat Diego Schwartzman in five sets. “I was serving good. I was trying to change up the game, mix up the game, and I’m really happy that I beat such a tough opponent with that score, and with that much energy left.”

Energy was not a commodity to which Evans could lay any great claim. Having contracted Covid-19 before the Olympics, he came into the US Open short of matches and had to fight back from two sets down to beat Alexei Popyrin in a fifth-set tiebreak in the previous round. Yet he had his moments. There was a lovely display of variety off the backhand, the Briton building on a sequence of deep, skidding slices with a seamless switch to topspin as he drew his opponent from side to side, until one final elegant roll of the wrist produced a down-the-line drive too hot for Medvedev to handle. There were a couple of sumptuous topspin lobs, the second of which saved a break point early in the second set.

There were rifled forehand winners, some fine work at the net, where he could profitably have spent more time, and a smattering of roundarm overheads that evoked memories of Jimmy Connors. The puzzle for Evans, who was even outdone by Medvedev on the highlights reel when the Russian struck an outrageous forehand winner around the net post, lay in how to parlay these moments into a strategy capable of unsettling his opponent.

It was a problem he never solved. Evans, who desperately needed a good start to the second set, made a dog’s breakfast of his opening service game, and although he managed to get back on level terms five games later, another flurry of errors saw him fall behind again. This time there was to be no reprieve, Medvedev delivering four explosive serves at 5-4 to seal a two-set advantage. Three games later he slammed a forehand return for a winner to break, and the contest was over in all but name.

Medvedev, who lost an epic final to Rafael Nadal at Flushing Meadows two years ago and offered further evidence of his hard-court pedigree by reaching the same stage at this year’s Australian Open, has yet to drop a set in New York. The path to a second US Open final has opened up invitingly after Stefanos Tsipitas and Andrey Rublev were both eliminated from his half of the draw, and his confidence could not be higher after winning 12 of his last 13 matches, a run that has included a first Toronto Masters title and a semi-final in Cincinnati. Medvedev puts his steady improvement down to experience. 

“What’s different [to] two years ago, I was in one more slam final, I won three more Masters – all these matches [were] tough matches against tough opponents. Sometimes you come back, sometimes you finish in straight sets. It’s experience. For example, I lost against Novak in Australian Open final. If I have one more grand slam final against him, will I do better? We don’t know. Will I try to do better with the experience I had? For sure.”

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