{"id":75178,"date":"2022-01-23T15:14:55","date_gmt":"2022-01-23T15:14:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/en.bornomalanews.com\/?p=75178"},"modified":"2022-01-23T15:14:55","modified_gmt":"2022-01-23T15:14:55","slug":"nadal-survives-epic-tiebreak-to-power-into-quarters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/en.bornomalanews.com\/?p=75178","title":{"rendered":"Nadal survives epic tiebreak to power into quarters"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Sports Desk:<\/strong> Rafael Nadal came out on top of an epic 28-minute opening-set tiebreak in sapping heat to power past Adrian Mannarino into the quarter-finals of the Australian Open on Sunday.<\/p>\n

The 20-time Grand Slam champion needed all of his experience and resolve to go on and claim a 7-6 (16\/14), 6-2, 6-2 victory on Rod Laver Arena to reach the last eight.<\/p>\n

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It is the 35-year-old Spanish great's 14th quarter-final in his 17th visit to Melbourne.<\/p>\n

The sixth-seeded Nadal will next face either Germany's third seed Alexander Zverev or Canadian 14th seed Denis Shapovalov in the quarters.<\/p>\n

“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.<\/p>\n

“That crazy first set was so important and the service break at the beginning of the second set too.<\/p>\n

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

“His ball was very difficult to control, very flat, very fast and I am very happy that I survived that.”<\/p>\n

Nadal is chasing a men's record 21st Grand Slam and coming off a curtailed 2021 season caused by a chronic foot injury followed by a bout of Covid-19 in December.<\/p>\n

The story of the match was the extraordinary opening-set tiebreak, where Nadal held seven set points and Frenchman Mannarino four.<\/p>\n

It proved an epic in the boiling heat, before Nadal prevailed 16-14 after winning a furious rally.<\/p>\n

The 69th-ranked Mannarino appeared to injure his groin or abdomen in chasing down a drop shot during the tiebreak and needed treatment courtside.<\/p>\n

The effort of the draining opening set told on Mannarino, who lost his opening service game of the second set and followed up with another in the fifth game.<\/p>\n

The outcome was inevitable with Nadal fully in command and getting the job done.<\/p>\n

Mannarino was also coming off a 4hr 38min struggle to get past 18th seed Aslan Karatsev in the previous round which finished in the early hours of Saturday.<\/p>\n

Mannarino battled on but Nadal gained ascendancy to work his way to victory to remain unbeaten after seven matches this season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sports Desk: Rafael Nadal came out on top of an epic 28-minute opening-set tiebreak in sapping heat to power past Adrian Mannarino into the quarter-finals of the Australian Open on Sunday. The 20-time Grand Slam champion needed all of his experience and resolve to go on and claim a 7-6 (16\/14), 6-2, 6-2 victory on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":75179,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[8],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\n\n\t\n