Rafael Nadal and Sergiy Stakhovsky had met on only one previous occasion, a Davis Cup match in 2013 in which Nadal was utterly dominant, winning 6-4, 6-0, 6-0. Coming into this match Nadal was in far less impressive form than two years ago, however it was difficult to imagine he would be upset by the older player. In a display of passing shots off both Nadal’s forehand and backhand, he pulled off the win without too much trouble.
A tight first set
The match began slowly, with both players making several unforced errors in the other’s first five service games. Stakhovsky found himself down 0-30 on serve, but got back to 30-30 with a couple of impressive winners. However, Nadal gained the first break point of the match and was gifted the lead with a wild double fault from the Ukrainian, 4-3. Nadal’s shoulder (which has been troubling him) didn’t appear to be affecting his serving performance, as he held to love with three unreturned serves.
A stunning backhand pass from Nadal saw him encroach on Stakhovsky’s service game as he was serving to stay in the set, but the underdog ended up holding comfortably for 4-5 with Nadal still up a break. As has been the case for many of his 2015 matches, Nadal struggled when serving out the set and found himself down two break back points. He saved one with a strong serve but a backhand unforced error into the net from the Spaniard saw Stakhovsky equal the match at five games all. Nadal seemed to have lost some of the rhythm he had gained throughout the set as he could not break Stakhovsky again, and both players held to push a tiebreak.
Nadal charged into a 3-0 lead immediately which included an entertaining point in which he hit three overheads before Stakhovsky missed a forehand to lose it. The rest of the tiebreak was mainly comprised of big serving from both players, and Nadal eventually seized the set with a well-placed body serve, 7-6(4) in 50 minutes. His statistic of seven winners to ten unforced errors was not the best but his first serve percentage of 74% was telling of how he won the set.
Nadal loosens up to take the match
Nadal began the second set serving, kicking it off with a successful first serve challenge. He held easily to love, 1-0. An amazing banana shot forehand pass made an inroad into Stakhovsky’s service game, and soon he reached 40-30 with a stunning lob. A forehand that dropped just inside the baseline was proof of Nadal’s growing confidence, and soon he flicked away a drop shot attempt from Stakhovsky to break for 2-0 before holding to consolidate.
Both men held their respective serves to reach 4-1. Stakhovsky faced a break point that would give Nadal a chance to serve for the match – Nadal took it with another backhand down the line pass off a drop shot to lead 5-1.
The Spaniard showed a hint of the nerves that were demonstrated in the first set when he was broken back when trying to serve out the match, which was followed by a hold of serve from Stakhovsky for 5-3. A backhand unforced error from him gave Nadal double match point, and the match was sealed with a strong serve that forced Stakhovsky to return into the net, 7-6(4) 6-3 in one hour and 25 minutes.
Nadal took all three break point opportunities he earned, and by the end of the match he had impressively turned around his ratio of winners to unforced errors to something far more respectable than that of the first set – the match ended with him having 19 winners and 13 unforced errors. His first serve percentage also remained high from the first set, averaging at 72% for the whole match.
Nadal's next challenge
Up next for Nadal is Mikhail Youzhny, with whom he leads the head to head 12-4. The last time the Russian defeated Nadal was in 2008 – since then he has only managed to take one set off the Spaniard. Youzhny defeated Gilles Simon in his first round match which is no mean feat but having won only seven matches over the course of the year and having to possibly contend with the form Nadal showed today, it’s hard to foresee anything but a win for Nadal.