Rafael Nadal has won seven consecutive US Open quarter-finals, and it appears that the Spaniard is on his way to making it eight in a row in Flushing Meadows. The second seed leads No. 20 seed Diego Schwartzman 6-4, 7-5 under the lights in Arthur Ashe Stadium.
The Spaniard has long been dominant in major quarter-finals, holding a 32-7 at this stage of Slams with five of those losses coming at the Australian Open. And he also owns a 32-match winning streak against Argentine opponents not named Juan Martin del Potro.
And although the scoreline appears clearly in favour of the 83-time tour-level titlist, it has been anything but simple. Nadal has needed to stave off furious comebacks by the recent Los Cabos champion in both sets to maintain his advantage.
Nadal sprinted to a 4-0 lead in the opener. But once Schwartzman found his rhythm in the baseline rallies, he was able to engage with the World No. 2, showing no fear of trading blows with the legendary lefty.
And suddenly, Schwartzman got both breaks back to get to 4-4, earning two break points to give himself a chance to serve for the set. But Nadal hung in there to avoid losing a third consecutive service game, and Schwartzman hit a backhand into the net on set point.
Again, Nadal appeared poised to pull away when he bashed a forehand before putting away an overhead off the bounce to break for 3-1 in the second set. Quickly, the 18-time Slam titlist earned another break to move to 5-1. But Schwartzman never went away, making an amazing series of gets at 15-0, finally shoveling a forehand winner down the line before raising both arms to get the crowd involved.
In the moment, it seemed like Schwartzman was simply enjoying the moment. But it showed that he was giving Nadal all he can handle, again recovering both breaks to return to 5-5 as chants of 'Olé' rang out through the New York night. But Nadal again was too strong in crunch time, hammering a forehand down the line to earn two set points, and converting the second of those when Schwartzman missed a forehand into the net.
from Tennis - ATP World Tour https://ift.tt/2ZzpSug
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