MELBOURNE, Australia — After fending off four set points and being unable to convert the first six of his own, Rafael Nadal finally clinched a 28-minute and 40-second tiebreaker to get himself on track to secure a spot in the Australian Open quarterfinals for the 14th time.
It’s also his 45th time into the last eight at a Grand Slam tournament, which is third on the all-time behind Federer and Novak Djokovic . “First set very, very emotional,” Nadal said. “Anything could happen there. I was a little bit lucky at the end. I had chances, he had a lot of chances too.”“I’m very happy I survived that first set, without a doubt,” he added. “That crazy first set was so important.”
In the women’s draw, French Open champion Barbora Krejcikova breezed to a 6-2, 6-2 win over two-time Australian Open champion Victoria Azarenka to reach the quarterfinals for the third time in four Grand Slam events. Krejcikova went into her match against Azarenka believing the former 32-year-old, former No. 1-ranked player from Belarus was the favorite to win.
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Source: nbcchicago - 🏆 545. / 51 Read more »
Source: nypost - 🏆 91. / 67 Read more »
Source: Forbes - 🏆 394. / 53 Read more »
Source: NBCNews - 🏆 10. / 86 Read more »
Source: nypost - 🏆 91. / 67 Read more »
Source: voguemagazine - 🏆 715. / 51 Read more »