Nadal Recovers After Bagel; Monday Miami Features Federer v Del Potro
Rafael Nadal losing a set 6-0?
ADHEREL
The former No. 1 rebounded from one of the worst starts of his career on Sunday at the Miami Open to eventually defeat No. 26 seed Philipp Kohlschreiber 0-6, 6-2, 6-3.
“He was doing everything good, so that’s sport,” Nadal said. “When somebody is playing the way that he was playing that first set, I lose the set because he was playing too good. That’s it. But a match is long and the positive thing is I held the pressure well this afternoon after a very tough first set. I resisted well in the first few games of the second set and then I think I played a great second and third set.”
It was Nadal’s 1,000th career match.
“One thousand matches is a lot of matches. Obviously that’s good news because that says I am having a long career. During a lot of years, I heard that I’m going to have a short career, so it’s something important for me,” said Nadal. “I remember the first match very well because it was at home in Mallorca. It was my first victory on the ATP and was a great feeling.”
No. 2-seeded Kei Nishikori was the only other Top 10-seeded winner Sunday, outdueling No. 25 Fernando Verdasco 7-6(2), 6-7(5), 6-1. He will next face unseeded Argentine Federico Delbonis, who beat German Jan-Lennard Struff 7-6(5), 6-1.
“I knew it’s going to be a tough one,” Nishikori said. “Fernando is a very solid player. He has a great serve and great groundstrokes. I knew it was going to be long rallies. But it was a shame when I was up a break in both first and second sets and both went to 7-6. That was something I made some mistakes when I was up a break.”
An all-American meeting was set up when No. 13 Jack Sock defeated Czech Jiri Vesely 6-3, 7-6(0), and Jared Donaldson received an injury walkover against No. 3 Milos Raonic who withdrew with continued issues with his hamstring.
“It’s related to the previous injury I sustained almost four weeks ago, if not a little bit more than four weeks ago, in Delray Beach,” Raonic said of his hamstring injury. “It’s the same muscle in the hamstring up high. It got progressively worse after my first round, after practicing yesterday, and it seemed like it was not possible for me to compete today without putting myself at significant risk.”
Other winners on the day were Italian Fabio Fognini, American Donald Young and France’s Nicolas Mahut.
Highlights of Monday play in Miami are (4) Roger Federer vs. (29) Juan Martin del Potro, (16) Alexander Zverev vs. (18) John Isner, (1) Stan Wawrinka vs. Malek Jaziri, and (12) Nick Kyrgios vs. (17) Ivo Karlovic.
Federer leads Del Potro 15-5 in their head-to-head. However, the two haven’t played since the 2013 ATP Finals won by Federer in three.
“It’s better to play him maybe this time around when we’re both better. He was also just on the comeback last year,” Federer said of facing the Argentine. “We’ve had some epic matches against each other: Semis at the French, Olympic semis, finals at the US Open. You name it, we’ve had some really good ones.”
MIAMI MONDAY SCHEDULE
STADIUM start 11:00 am
ATP – [25] F. Verdasco (ESP) vs [2] K. Nishikori (JPN)
Not Before 1:00 pm
WTA – [1] A. Kerber (GER) vs S. Rogers (USA)
WTA – [11] V. Williams (USA) vs [Q] P. Tig (ROU)
ATP – [5] R. Nadal (ESP) vs [26] P. Kohlschreiber (GER)
Not Before 7:30 pm
WTA – [3] S. Halep (ROU) vs [Q] A. Kontaveit (EST)
Not Before 9:00 pm
ATP – [13] J. Sock (USA) vs J. Vesely (CZE)
You Might Like:
Novak Djokovic Hopes Roger Federer Recovers Fast From Knee Surgery
Rafael Nadal To Miss ATP Cup, Australian Open OK
Roger Federer Now Has 2 Career Double Bagels, More Than Nadal And Djokovic Combined [Chart]
Blake Recovers From Slow Start
After Double Bagel Loss, Tomas Berdych Cans Coach Dani Vallverdu