After a perfect start, Rafael Nadal nearly let his quarterfinal match slip away, but took advantage of some errors from Joao Sousa late to edge the Portuguese 6-0, 4-6, 6-3 to advance to the semifinals of the Mutua Madrid Open. After dominating the opening set, the four-time Madrid champion struggled to keep the ball in play, but did just enough to hold off an inspired fight from Sousa.
King of Clay dominates opener
A day after having the worst possible start to a match, Nadal got off to dream start holding to love before racing ahead 0-40 in Sousa’s first service game. The Portuguese hit four errors in the game, gifting Nadal the break for an early lead. Sousa did not want to be left behind and raced ahead 0-30 on his opponent’s serve in the next game, reaching break point at 30-40. But the Portuguese missed three straight returns of serve and Nadal held for a 3-0 lead.
After missing out on a chance to regain the break, things went from bad to worse for the first-time Masters 1000 quarterfinalist, as more errors gave Nadal triple break point again, and another forehand unforced error put the Spaniard up 4-0. Two games later, Sousa found himself serving down 0-5, 15-40. He stepped up and drew errors on the first two set points, but the King of Clay was not to be denied, bringing up a third at 40-AD and closing out with a backhand winner.
Rain delay works to Sousa’s advantage
Sousa tried to turn the tables on Nadal right away in the second set, bringing up a break point in the first game of the set, but drove a forehand long. Despite failing to break, he finally got on the board by holding a game later. Serving at 2-3, Sousa missed a routine volley wide that gave Nadal a break point. The Spaniard could not convert, but fired a winner at deuce to bring up a second. At that point, the umpire decided that rain had gotten too heavy, and the match was delayed while the roof was closed.
The delay seemed to give the Portuguese a chance to regroup, as he came back and saved the break point before holding. After the break, Sousa appeared to be rejuvenated and was applying more pressure to Nadal. At 4-4, he battled to break point on the Nadal serve and the world number five pushed a forehand long to give Sousa a chance to serve out the set. The Portuguese made no mistake, racing ahead 40-0 and converting his second set point to send the match to a decider.
Nadal battles to victory
This time, it was Nadal trying to put the disappointment of dropping the preview set behind him quickly, and brought up a pair of break points in his opponent’s first service game of the set. But Sousa was up to the task, saving the first with a big serve before Nadal fired a routine forehand long. In the early stages of the set, it was the world number five who could not seem to string together back-to-back good points. He was also struggling to keep his groundstrokes in play.
Despite Nadal’s problems, Sousa was unable to take advantage. He did well to stay in rallies and put pressure on Nadal, but struggled to finish points. It was the Spaniard who took his chances late in the set, reaching double break point once again at 4-3, and this time Sousa gave it away, hitting a double fault to let Nadal serve for the set. The Portuguese did not roll over for the King of Clay, but Nadal held to seal the victory
By the numbers
Statistically, Nadal was better in Sousa in almost every area in this match. He won 73 percent of his first serve points to Sousa’s 65, and was far better on second serves, winning 67 percent to Sousa’s 41. The Spaniard led in winners 20 to 14, and benefitted greatly from 30 errors of his opponent’s racquet, only giving away 21 of his own.
Nadal was far from his best in the latter sets of this match, and he will need to be far better in the semifinals. Next up for the King of Clay is a rematch of last year’s Madrid final with Andy Murray. Nadal beat Murray in their most recent clash in Monte Carlo semifinals, but Murray crushed Nadal with the loss of just five games in their final here last year.