Rafael Nadal has defeated Philipp Kohlschreiber of Germany in the third round of the Monte Carlo Masters. Nadal won the match in straight sets by 6-2, 6-4. It took the Spanish superstar just 80 minutes to finish off this encounter.
Nadal who has already won this competition 8 times in the past is looking good for another title here. He looked at his peak against Kohlschreiber.
Both these players had played 9 matches against each other before this match and Nadal had won 8 out of them. However, in their previous meeting in the quarter final of the Gerry Weber Open last year, Kohlschreiber had defeated Nadal in straight sets. So, Nadal was looking for the revenge and he got that.
In the opening set, Nadal got a breakthrough in the 3rd game and then, by serving out the next game, he took a lead of 3-1. In the next two games, there were no breakthroughs and at the end of the 6th game, Nadal was leading by 4-2.
Kohlschreiber dropped his serve again in the 7th game and a serve hold by Nadal in the next game won him the set.
In the second set, both the players held their serve in the first 6 games and the scores were levelled at 3-3 when the 6th game got finished.
Nadal broke Kohlschreiber’s serve in the 7th game and got ahead by 4-3. The next couple of games went with the serve and Nadal was ahead by 5-4 when the 10th game began.
To come out victorious in the match, Nadal just required a serve hold in the 10th game and he didn’t have to work hard for that. He served it out by playing some crisp shots and moved into the quarter finals.
In the quarter final round, Nadal will take on Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria.
Rafael Nadal has been defeated by Horacio Zeballos of Argentina in the final match of the VTR Open 2013. Zeballos won the match by 6-7(2), 7-6(6), 6-4. It was a thrilling encounter and the match went all the way down to the wire.
This was a comeback tournament for Rafael Nadal and he had performed sensationally before this match. He hadn’t lost even a single set on his way to the final. But, in the final match, he didn’t manage to dominate his opponent.
Talking to the reporters after losing the final match, Nadal said, “Overall, I am quite happy with my performance in this competition. I was making a comeback after almost 7 months and honestly speaking, I hadn’t expected myself to be fluent in the first few matches. But, I played well right from the start.”
Nadal made a decent start in the final match. In the opening set, he held his entire serve. However, he didn’t manage to latch on any break chance. The set went into the tie breaker in which Nadal took a lead of 5-1. He didn’t lose the plot after that and sealed the opening set with 7-6(2).
The proceedings were pretty much similar in the following set as well. Again, both the players held their entire serve and the set was again extended into the tie breaker. But, this time around, the Argentinean didn’t let Nadal dominate in the tie breaker. Zeballos won the tie breaker by a close margin and grabbed the second set.
Nadal was off to a fine start in the third set with a breakthrough in the very first game, but, he lost his lead immediately as his service was broken in the second game. The next seven games went with the serve and at the end of the 9th game; Zeballos was ahead by 5-4. In the 10th game, the Argentinean got another breakthrough and wrapped up the proceedings with that.
Rafael Nadal has made it clear that he is going to participate in the Mubadala Tennis Championship which is going to be played from 27th to 29th of December at Abu Dhabi International Tennis complex. Earlier, there were a few reports that Nadal had still not fully recovered and he might opt to withdraw his name from Mubadala Tennis Championship as well. But, the Spanish superstar has denied all those reports.
Nadal hasn’t played any match after losing the second round match in the Wimbledon Championship against Lukas Rosol of Czech Republic. The Mubadala tennis Championship will be his first tournament in the last six months.
When asked whether he would participate in the Mubadala Tennis Championship or no, Nadal said, “Yes, I am going to Abu Dhabi to play this tournament. I have regained complete fitness now and I am eagerly waiting for this tournament to start. I have won this tournament a couple of times in the past. I hope that I would do well this time around as well and would start the season on a winning note.”
When asked if he is a bit low in confidence after having been out of the game for such a long time, Nadal said, “Not really. I have been practicing since the last couple of weeks and I have been hitting the ball quite well. But, practicing and playing against a top player are two different things. But, I have faith in my abilities and hopefully, I would put up a good performance in my comeback tournament.”
When asked about his goals in the next season, Nadal said, “I am not thinking too much ahead at this point of time. I will take one tournament at a time. Right now, I am focussed on performing well in Abu Dhabi and then, I will look forward to the Australian Open.”
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April 25, 2013 6:38 am | 
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