NADAL CELEBRATES 1,000TH TOURLEVEL MATCH WITH MIAMI WIN
Rafael Nadal celebrated his 1,000th Tour-level match with a come-from-behind victory over German veteran Philipp Kohlschreiber to reach the fourth round of the Miami Open on Sunday.
World No 31 Kohlschreiber was on fire early, ripping through the first set in only 21 minutes but fifth seed Nadal flipped the switch and turned the match on its head to prevail 0-6 6-2 6-3 on the main stadium hard court at Crandon Park.
It was the first time Nadal had failed to win a game in the first set of an ATP tour match since 2008, the ATP said.
The 30-year-old Spaniard ignited the near-capacity crowd with a typically determined comeback to clinch his 822nd career victory.
He joins a small group of 11 players headed by Jimmy Connors (1,535) to have played at least 1,000 matches.
“One thousand matches is a lot of matches. Obviously that’s good news because that says I am having a long career,” Nadal told reporters.
Nadal said he had not done much wrong in the first set against an opponent who was in the zone.
While Nadal played in the relative comfort of the late afternoon, Kei Nishikori also took three sets and nearly three hours to advance under a high noon sun, outlasting Spain’s Fernando Verdasco 7-6(2) 6-7(5) 6-1.
Milos Raonic withdrew before his match against American qualifier Jared Donaldson, blaming a persistent hamstring injury.
KERBER ADVANCES
World No 1 Angelique Kerber came back from a break down in both sets to beat American Shelby Rogers 6-4, 7-5 and move into the fourth round at Miami.
With no sign of the rain that interrupted the past two days on Key Biscayne, Kerber was joined in the round of 16 by Britain’s Johanna Konta, American Venus Williams and Russia’s Svetlana Kuznetsova all who had comfortable wins.
Although ranked 61st in the world, Rogers has beaten Karolina Pliskova, Petra Kvitova, Simona Halep and Daria Kasatkina in the last year and had her eye on beating the top seed.
It was a similar story in the second set where Rogers, having saved a break point, hit some good winners to go 4-2 up only for the German to power back and secure a fourth round meeting with Japanese qualifier Risa Ozaki who beat German Julia Georges 7-6 (7/5), 6-3.
Williams had no such difficulties in beating Romania’s Patricia Maria Tig, 6-3, 6-0 to set up a tough challenge against Russia’s Kuznetsova.
MURRAY DOUBTFUL
LONDON: World No 1 Andy Murray is likely to miss Great Britain’s Davis Cup quarterfinal trip to France due to an elbow injury, his brother Jamie Murray has said. The three-time Grand Slam winner, who pulled out of the ongoing Miami Masters after sustaining an elbow problem in training, is expected to be left out of the Great Britain squad.