Rafael Nadal advances as Carreno Busta retires in French quarterfinals

Rafael Nadal gets an easy pass as Pablo Carreno Busta retires in the second set. He advances into the French Open semifinals.

The preparation for landing in the semis is constant as a player whittles away each opponent at every round. Going down with injuries isn’t what anyone wants. But, it happened to Pablo Carreno Busta.

Rafa Nadal was zoned in and his dials for success were working nicely.

Pablo Carreno Busta came out of the starting blocks strong, bashing a powerful forehand down the line that Nadal couldn’t reach. Rafa pushed Pablo towards the baseline and put on his serve and volley strategy to win the opening game.

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Carreno Busta had his team of onlookers as his coach, along with the Spanish Davis Cup Captain and former player Conchita Martinez, silently analyzed the action.

Loopy shots from Nadal whether intentional or not is what Carreno Busta wanted and the result was Rafa hitting the ball into the net.

The two Spaniards had a good rally but at one point Carreno Busta hit a short ball and this delighted Nadal as he made him pay by smashing an unreachable volley onto Pablo’s side. Rafa decided to take a bathroom break near the end of the first set and Pablo felt it was a good time to call the trainer to tend to a stomach ailment he’d had.

The scenario for all fans to observe was Carreno Busta laying prostrate out on some towels, being attended to, then getting the side of his stomach bandaged. Players came back on court and started to resume the match but it became obvious that Nadal was playing all his shots on point and had the answer for all of Carreno Busta’s.

A gift was given to Nadal who needed none and that was a double fault by Carreno Busta resulting from Nadal grabbing the first set in no less than a half hour at best. The second set proved to be an enjoyable time for Nadal as Pablo was feeling that stomach injury more and Rafa wasn’t letting up and was making him work it as much as possible.

Carreno Busta worked his strategies as much as he physically could, with the rally ending with him giving Nadal a backhand winner. But at this point Carreno Busta knew he couldn’t keep up the facade of playing great and being hurt. He went for an overhead but missed the mark and it landed in the alley of the court. He was unable to take playing anymore and decided to call it quits, handing the match to Nadal.

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Everyone clapped for the brave warrior. Even Rafa was gracious as Carreno Busta left with his bags on his shoulder and his chances of making it into the semifinals of this French Open on Rafa’s side of the court.

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