Nadal survives after back against the wall – Ricky Dimon

Written by: Staff on 9th March 2014

Nadal survives after back against the wall - Ricky Dimon

epa04116493 Rafael Nadal from Spain celebrates his close three set victory over Radek Stepanek from the Czech Republic at the BNP Paribas Open tennis in Indian Wells, California, USA, 08 March 2014. Nadal won the match. EPA/MICHAEL NELSON |

With Rafael Nadal serving at 2-3, 0-40 in the third set, it looked like the BNP Paribas Open would lose its defending champion and world No. 1 on just the third day of action.

Nadal had other ideas. The Spaniard came up with spectacularly clutch play that sent tournament director Larry Ellison into a well-documented show of emotion before eventually outlastingRadek Stepanek 2-6, 6-4, 7-5 on Saturday night. The decisive turning point came at 30-40 of the final set’s sixth game when a furious rally culminated in a brilliant backhand pass by Nadal. He ended up holding serve and never let go of the momentum, ultimately seizing a match-clinching service break at 5-5.

“It’s true that with love40 was, yeah, very close to lose—to be out—but I think I did two good serves and then I played a great point,” Nadal said in his post-match press conference. “Tough one. Anything can happen, but in the end I played well. After [saving the 0-40 game], I think I played better.

“After Rio, I did treatment there in Rio just after the final and I didn’t serve for 10 days,” Nadalsaid, referring to the lingering back problem that hampered him in an Australian Open final loss to Stanislas Wawrinka. “So I was starting to serve few days ago just; that’s normal. I was serving not bad on the practices, but changing a little bit the movement to protect a little bit the back. I was feeling the back much worse (in Rio) than here. I’m happy for that. That’s most important thing.”

Next up for Nadal is a rematch of the Rio de Janeiro final against Alexandr Dolgopolov.

Topics: BNP Paribas Indian Wells, Rafael Nadal, Ricky Dimon, Spanish tennis news, Tennis News

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10sBalls_com says:

March 9, 2014 at 1:59 pm

@RafaelNadal survives after back against the wall – By @Ricky Dimon http://t.co/zKvLNKRSns @BNPPARIBASOPEN @RafaelNadalFC #BNPPO14 #tennis