Rafael Nadal Into Third Round At Madrid

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Rafael Nadal Into Third Round At Madrid
By Thurston Soros, Lawn Tennis Analyst, Posted: Thursday, May 5, 2022 7:39am PST USA

Madrid-- Wednesday in the second round of the Mutua Madrid Open, the third seeded Rafael Nadal of Spain needed almost two hours to defeat the 32nd ranked Serbian Miomir Kecmanovic 6-1, 7-6(7-4).

Nadal, playing his first match since reaching the Indian Wells final in March, improved his record for the year to 21-1.

Following several powerful topspin forehand, backhand and overhead winners, Nadal led 5-1 in set one.

Serving in set two at four all 40-0, Kecmanovic struck a down the line backhand lob winner

Rafael Nadal of Spain

Nadal, playing his first match since reaching the Indian Wells final in March, improved his record for the year to 21-1.

to hold serve and lead 5-4.

Nadal then struck two aces in his following service game to hold serve and to level the set at five games all.

Kecmanovic struck three backhand errors to drop serve and trail 5-6.

Serving for the set, Nadal hit two backhands long.

Kecmanovic also struck a 90 miles per hour down the line backhand winner in route to breaking serve to reach six games all; the tiebreaker.

At 5-4 in the tiebreaker, Nadal struck an overhead winner to reach matchpoint before closing out the match after one hour and fifty-five minutes of play with his third ace of the day.

Should he win his third round match on Thursday versus the qualifier David Goffin of Belgium, Nadal could face the seventh seeded Carlos Alcaraz also of Spain in the semifinals.

In the final round, Nadal could face the top ranked Novak Djokovic of Serbia.