Nadal survives epic tiebreak to make quarters

Rafa Nadal survived an epic 28-minute tiebreak to beat Frenchman Adrian Mannarino on Sunday, taking out a 7-6, 6-2, 6-2 victory inside a scorching hot Rod Laver Arena.

“I was a little bit lucky at the end of the tiebreaker, I had my chances but then he had a lot of chances too,” Nadal said.

“That crazy first set was so important and the service break at the beginning of the second set too.

“He had been playing some fantastic tennis during the whole tournament, winning against amazing players, and today the first set was super difficult.

“His ball was very difficult to control, very flat, very fast and I am very happy that I survived that.”

Nadal head seven set points in that first set tiebreak and Mandarino held four as the pair battled for supremacy.

Mannarino looked to have injured himself chasing down a shot and Nadal pounced to eventually take the set.

The knee knock had to be treated, but despite battling on, the Frenchman didn’t have the pace to stay in touch.

And once he had overcome that first set hurdle, Nadal picked up the pace and took sets two and three with relative ease.

Nadal next faces 14th seed Shapovalov, who beat Alexander Zverev 6-3, 7-6, 6-3 to reach his first Australian Open quarter-final.

Peter Rowe

Recent Posts

Halep seething over Swiatek wrist-slap doping penalty

Doping sanction victim Simona Halep has gone online to protest her own treatment by anti-doping…

3 weeks ago

Nadal goes down in final match

Rafael Nadal lined up for what was to be the final match of his career…

1 month ago

Sinner flattens de Minaur in runaway home start

Jannik Sinner took charge in front of his home crowd on Sunday, crushing ATP Finals…

1 month ago

Madcap Medvedev suffers temperamental Turin Finals loss

Daniil Medvedev went into meltdown mode on Sunday during a highly charged 6-4, 6-3 loss, with opponent…

1 month ago

Team Sinner considering skipping Monte Carlo

Jannik Sinner could well be missing from the opening European clay event of next season…

1 month ago

Davis Cup Final to mark Nadal goodbye to tennis

Rafael Nadal will bring down the curtain on his career next month as he plays his…

2 months ago