Monday, 27 March 2017

Nadal wins from 0-6 down

To take a set off Rafa Nadal is an achievement.  To do it without surrendering a game is  unthinkable.  Philipp Kohlschreiber completed the unfathomable in their Miami Open third round opening set.  Nadal had an acceptable first serve percentage but the German 26th seed punished it, winning 67% of the points.
Kohlschreiber converted each of his three break points and had the fifth seed on the ropes.  

Never count Nadal out.  He turned the match on its head with a dominant second set, winning all but two points on his serve, and half of the points on Kohlschreiber's serve. The 6-2 result squared the contest and the serving from Nadal was even better in the final set - 90% first serve.  All points won on first serve. 
Kohlschreiber served well too but the only break came the way of Nadal who progressed to the fourth round 0-6 6-2 6-3.

This is one tournament yet to be claimed by Nadal, and his hopes of filling that gap improved with the withdrawal of Milos Raonic with hamstring troubles.
Joining Nadal in the round of sixteen are second seed Kei Nishikori, thirteenth seed Jack Sock and five unseeded players - Nicolas Mahut, Jared Donaldson, Fabio Fognini, Donald Young and Federico Delbonis.

Third round women's matches were completed, and all the seeded players in action progressed except for Madison Keys, who was a surprise straight sets victim at the hands of Spain's Lara Arruabarrena.
Samantha Stosur took the full distance to overcome Shuai Peng, while Angie Kerber, Venus Williams, Svetlana Kuznetsova, Simona Halep and Johanna Konta each took only two sets.
In the only unseeded match Risa Ozaki defeated Julia Goerges to reach the round of sixteen with Kerber and co.

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