Nadal stages epic comeback to reach Indian Wells 3rd round
Sports Desk, US, Mar 12 (EFE).- Spain’s Rafael Nadal came back from 2-5 down in the third set Saturday to defeat American Sebastian Korda 6-2, 1-6 and 7-6 (3), improve his perfect 2022 record to 16-0 and advance to the third round of the Indian Wells tournament.
The recently crowned Australian Open and Mexican Open champion rallied from two breaks down in the deciding set and defeated Korda in the tiebreak in a two hour and 29 minute long battle.
Nadal, who has won a record 21 Grand Slam titles, recorded the 399th Masters 1000 win of this career in pursuit of his fourth Indian Wells triumph after 2007, 2009 and 2013.
His next round opponent will be Britain’s Daniel Evans, the world no. 29.
Nadal raced to a 4-0 lead in the first set, ceding just five points to Korda, and sealed the set 6-2 in just 35 minutes.
He won 73 percent of the points with his second serve and made six unforced errors.
But a match that the Spaniard seemed to have totally under control changed completely in the second set as Korda stepped up his game considerably.
Nadal committed as many as eight unforced errors in the first four games of the set, allowing Korda to go 4-0 up.
He was also only able to hold his serve once and Korda took advantage of the Spaniard’s slump to level the match with an authoritative 6-1.
Nadal seemed to be dousing his young opponent’s fire after holding onto his serve in the first game of the third and deciding set but Korda remained confident.
He played spectacular tennis, with powerful and deep shots, and took advantage of a long series of double faults by Nadal to get two valuable breaks and take a 5-2 lead.
It was at that moment, when he was on the verge of victory, that Korda began to stumble and Nadal’s never-say-die spirit that he has demonstrated throughout his career came kicked in.
He won games in a row to go up 6-5 before Korda fought back to force a tiebreaker.
But it was too late to stop the Spaniard, who won on his first match point. EFE
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