Nadal erases deficit to advance to fourth round
KEY BISCAYNE— The dream seemedto disappear into Key Biscayne’s Sunday evening sky.
The elusive Miami Open championship for Rafael Nadal looked like it would escape him again. A nostalgic championship matchup between Nadal and Roger Federer appeared more fantasy than reality.
Then Nadal reminded everyone why he is one of the sport’s legends.
After German Philipp Kohlschreiber won the first set of the third-round match 6-0, Nadal rebounded to take the next two, 6-2, 6-3, and advance to face Nicolas Mahut.
“The match is long, and positive thing is I hold very well the pressure this afternoon after a very tough first set,” Nadal said. “I resisted well the first few games on the second, and then I think I played a great second and third set.”
Nadal tore through the 26th-seeded Kohlschreiber in the final two sets, winning points on 31 of his 32 first serves. In the first set, Nadal won just five of 15.
Nadal said he switched up his game plan to extend rallies and prevent Kohlschreiber from hitting his returns as hard as he did in the first set. So Nadal backed up on returns and played higher balls against Kohlschreiber’s backhand.
Sunday’s first set was the first time since the 2015 Australian Open quarter finals that Nadal did not win a game in a set. Itwas the first time since January 2011 that Nadal lost a set 6-0 but eventually won the match.
Nadal has never won on Key Biscayne despite four championship appearances, most recently in 2014 when he fell in two sets to Novak Djokovic. He also fell to Djokovic in a three-set final in 2011.
Sunday also marked Nadal’s 1,000th ATP match. He became the 11th player ever to reach the milestone, a group that includes Federer, Jimmy Connors, Andre Agassi and John McEnroe.
“A thousand matches is a lot of matches obviously and good news, because that says that I am having a long career,” Nadal said. “That’s something important, especially that during a lot of years I heard that I going to have a short career. So it’s something important for me.”
Raonic out
Third-seeded Milos Raonic withdrew from the tournament prior to Sunday’s third-round match against American qualifier Jared Donaldson due to a hamstring injury. Donaldson advanced to the fourth round.
Raonic’s injury is the latest in a string of high-profile withdrawals on the men’s side. Before the tournament began, No. 1-ranked Andy Murray and No. 2 Djokovic pulled out with elbow injuries.
Second-seeded Kei Nishikori is still alive in the bottom half of the men’s draw after outlasting 25th-seeded Fernando Verdasco in three sets on Sunday, 7-6 (7-2), 6-7 (5-7), 6-1. The match was 16 minutes short of three hours.
“In the third set I was very focused,” Nishikori said. “Even though after first and second was tough, tough sets, Iwas try to play more energy, and I think everything was working well in the third set. So, yeah, it was tough one, but I'm very happy to win today.”
Nishikori advanced to play Argentinean Federico Delbonis. Delbonis beat Jan-Lennard Struff 7-6 (7-5), 6-1.
Kuznetsova up next for Venus
Venus Williams overcame a slow start to easily cruise past Romanian Patricia Maria Tig, 6-3, 6-0. Williams double-faulted six times in the first set, but only had one in the second set.
“Like I said at the end of the match, I felt like my level was continuing to rise, which is exactly what Iwant,” Williams said. “It was just one break of serve in the beginning. I've never played her, so you got to get used to patterns or rhythm and things like that.”
Seventh-seeded Svetlana Kuznetsova awaits Williams in the fourth round after eliminating 20-year-old American Taylor Townsend with a 6-4, 6-2 win. The matchup between Kuznetsova and Williams will be the 10th for the pair since the first one 2003, with Kutnetsova leading the series 5-4.