RAFA NADAL COMES BACK FROM THE BRINK OF DEFEAT AGAINST POUILLE, DEL POTRO ALSO WINS IN BEIJING

Written by: Staff on 3rd October 2017

RAFA NADAL COMES BACK FROM THE BRINK OF DEFEAT AGAINST POUILLE, DEL POTRO ALSO WINS IN BEIJING

epa06241899 Rafael Nadal of Spain reacts during his men's singles first round match against Lucas Pouille of France at the China Open tennis tournament at the National Tennis Center in Beijing, China, 03 October 2017. EPA-EFE/HOW HWEE YOUNG |

By Ricky Dimon

If “survive and advance” is the name of the game, Rafael Nadal played it to perfection at the China Open on Tuesday. If he is in the business of making things easy for himself, well, that definitely did not happen.

Lucas Pouille had two match points against the Spaniard during a first-round thriller, but Nadal saved both of them and ended up prevailing 4-6, 7-6(6), 7-5 after two hours and 31 minutes of play. Pouille led 6-4 in the second-set tiebreaker only to net a simple forehand on the first one before missing a relatively easy backhand pass on his second chance.

Nadal won the next two points to force a decider and never relinquished his momentum. The world No. 1 fought off a break point at 2-3 to stay on serve and eventually broke to love at 5-5. That allowed Nadal to serve for victory at 6-5, which he did successfully without any trouble–capitalizing on his first match point with a well-placed serve at 40-15. The reigning French Open and U.S. Open champion won 12 of the last 13 points overall.

It must have felt like a measure of revenge for Nadal, who fell to Pouille 8-6 in a fifth-set tiebreaker at last year’s U.S. Open.

“(It) was a very tough first round, as I say the other day,” the top seed noted. “He played well, I think; very aggressive. He’s serving well. For me (it) was little bit difficult at the beginning. Then I started to play better. But still, I didn’t have the control of the match for almost all the time.

“He had two match points, one of them with an easy forehand more or less. But it’s like this. I remember the match against him in the U.S. Open that I had six-all in the tiebreak, an easy forehand I missed at the net, too. That time was for him; today was for me.”

Juan Martin Del Potro joined Nadal in the second round by defeating Pablo Cuevas 7-6(4), 6-4. The Argentine smashed 11 aces while double-faulting just once and he thwarted all three of the break points he faced. Up next for Del Potro on Wednesday is Grigor Dimitrov, who halted the hot streak of a red-hot Damir Dzumhur 6-1, 3-6, 6-3.

“I think I’m fresh,” Del Potro assured. “I just came from home, (so) I’m strong to play the tournament. To have Dimitrov in the second round is not easy for me. He’s one of the favorites to win the tournament. It could be a quarterfinal, semifinal, or the final match. But tomorrow I have to be ready for the challenge.”

Among those also advancing in Beijing were Nick Kyrgios, John Isner, Karen Khachanov, Tomas Berdych, and Andrey Rublev. Khachanov is next up for Nadal on Thursday in a rematch of their recent Wimbledon meeting–which Nadal won in straight sets.