Nadal makes winning start as tennis returns in virtual world
Claycourt king Rafa Nadal suffered a fake injury, several players 'froze' and one match vanished into thin air as the Virtual Madrid Open made its debut on Monday.
With professional tennis tours closed down until mid July at the earliest because of the coronavirus pandemic, an esports version of the claycourt event is being staged online.
Thirty two of the world's best players have swapped their rackets for Playstation controllers, courts for sofas, to contest the four-day event designed to offer players, and fans, some action during the lockdown.
Nadal claimed he was a computer game novice during an Instagram chat with Andy Murray last week, but the Spaniard showed impressive fingerwork to beat young Canadian Denis Shapovalov in his opening round-robin match on a digital representation of the Spanish capital's Manolo Santana Stadium.
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Nadal, five times a champion of the real Madrid Open that should have been played this week, then pulled out of his exhibition match against YouTube star DjMariio.
The 33-year-old warrior, who can go toe-to-toe with Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer for hours, was said to have tweaked his back.
Andy Murray, tipped by Lopez as a pre-tournament favourite, got into the spirit of things too -- grunting loudly after every 'virtual' shot as he beat Frenchman Benoit Paire.
See the full story here: https://wkzo.com/news/articles/2020/apr/27/bad-back-rules-nadal-out-of-virtual-reality-charity-match/1011529/