Nadal

Australian Open Men

... And it gives the Canadian two set points. Unreturned serve saves the first for Nadal, but now it's Raonic on serve. DOUBLE FAULT! Gasps from the crowd and it's 6-6. RAONIC 4-6 6-6 NADAL: Well playe Milos! Giving one another the runabout but he picks out a great volley to take the mini-break. A crisp volley takes it to 5-3 but Nadal finds some space with a passing how and we're back on serve at 5-4. RAONIC 4-6 6-6 NADAL: Chance for Rafa to take an immediate mini-break, but he goes long with a forehand. The defence from Nadal again to take a 2-1 lead. Stays on serve at the change-over. 3-3. RAONIC 4-6 6-6 NADAL: Just about shot of the match as Nadal clips the line. The Spaniard then moves to 40-15 with only his second ace, but only after the umpire incorrectly overrules the call. Ace no.3 and we're heading to a tie-break. RAONIC 4-6 6-5 NADAL: A similar pattern in some of Raonic's serves so far this match. And another 30-0 quickly becomes 30-30, but his 11 th ace brings up game point and he takes it ...

Nadal Closes In On Federer Final At Australian Open

... double break point in his next service game. He safely negotiated the rest of his service games and took the opening set with an overhead smash. Nadal fought off a break point in a five-deuce service game early in the second set as Raonic began to serve better. The Canadian left the court at 3-2 for treatment to an adductor injury. Upon his return, games went with serve until Nadal came under attack in the 10 th game, saving three set points with pressure serving. Raonic had three more set points in the tiebreaker and blew them all before Nadal took a two sets lead on his first set point as the match swung decisively the Spaniard's way. Raonic was wayward with his volleying and made errors on crucial points to take the heat off Nadal. He looked physically in trouble and he was wincing in between points. The end came quickly when Raonic fell three match points down in the 10 th game and Nadal won the rally to win which he greeted with his arms raised in the air. "Obviously he put it together more consistently, much more consistently, than I did today," Raonic said. "He's doing a lot of things well. ...

Rafael Nadal Discusses One Key Element He Needs For Successful Comeback

... That is something that is very special for me.”. Nadal holds claim to 14 Grand Slam titles, but only one from Melbourne Park, which came with a final defeat of Roger Federer in 2009. To win here this year, however, would take hurdles to overcome, starting with the fact he hasn’t won a hard court trophy since winning Doha in January 2014. For Nadal, showing up to play is all about being competitive. If he thinks he can fight, he’s happy to try and see how it goes. If he didn’t feel that way he insisted “I will be probably playing golf or fishing at home.”. Nadal’s passion for fishing isn’t really about reeling in a big catch like he used to regularly reel in tennis titles, although it’s worth noting he did win two of his 69 career titles last year. Fishing is more about the atmosphere surrounding the pastime. “I think (fishing) is a full package,” Nadal said. “I love the sea. I am from an island. It’s about going out with the boat, be in the middle of the sea. I love to be a ...

Rafa Nadal Wears £720,000 Richard Mille Watch To Play In Australian Open Quarter-final Win

... seed Dimitrov on Friday after the Bulgarian beat David Goffin. After ten years, Rafa Nadal brings his 'wildcard' girlfriend to the Australian open. And after the 2012 French Open Nadal allegedly had a £275,000 Mille masterpiece stolen that was only on loan from the expert maker. Mille makes wrist bling for American golfer Bubba Watson , who won the 2012 Masters with one of his watches – with the brand getting plenty of attention as the cameras regularly zoomed in on the heavy-hitting star’s grip. And decorated sprinter Yohan Blake wore a customised Tourbillon in Jamaica's national colours during the 2012 Olympics in London. Related Stories. Racing Tips - Top Tipster Templegate's best horse racing selections for Thursday, January 25. THE MASK OF ZORO. Racing Tips - Top Tipster Steven Mullen's best horse racing selections for Thursday, January 25. MEMORIES OF YEBOAH. Leeds 2 Nottingham Forest 0: Souleymane Doukara scores one of the goals of the season with his first touch to send Leeds up to third. FOOTBALL UNITES. Chapecoense survivors take to the pitch as Brazil ...

Nadal Breaks Fifth-set Hex With Confidence-building Win Over Zverev

... the court in celebration, Rafa dug in and broke serve. Now he was up 4-2 and struggling to protect that break; slowly but surely, Zverev had begun to creep back into the set. Rafa went down 0-15, before leveling at 15-15 with a strong crosscourt backhand. Then he went down 15-30, before leveling again with a service winner. At 30-30, Nadal decided to serve and volley. If he had lost that point, and then lost the match, the tactic would have looked like another example of Rafa panicking in the clutch. As it was, Zverev, drawn forward, put up a short lob, and Nadal whirled, leaped up for a high backhand volley, and without being able to see exactly where he was hitting the ball, snapped it off for a crosscourt winner. When he realized that he had won the point, Rafa celebrated with a leaping fist-pump—one good jump deserves another, right? He must have suspected that he had finally found the shot he needed, when he needed it most. Two games later, Nadal closed out the set ...

Rafa Nadal Is Into Australian Open Quarter-finals, For The Ninth Time

... in the Frenchman's game: the airborne volleys, the big winners, the dinky angles and a willingness to persist, fight and find ways. After winning the third set, he broke Nadal again early in the fourth but was unable to hold on to his lead against a player who has lost very few matches after starting out with a two-set lead. It took Nadal until the eighth game to break back, but from there he was able to wrest back control of the match almost immediately, holding his serve to love and then upping the pressure even more. Monfils was able to save one match point with a scorching forehand winner down the line. He was unable to save the next, with an equally ambitious shot down the opposite side just missing. Gael Monfils takes on Rafael Nadal. Photo: Getty Images. Neither his opponent's aggression or unpredictability came as any surprise to Nadal, who will play his first quarter-final since the 2015 French Open and could make his first semi-final since the same event in 2014. "The match was tough. He had chances then. Is true that I had my chances before, but I had some mistakes. He started to serve huge, no?" said Nadal. "Sometimes is tough to play ...

Raonic Eliminated At Australian Open With Loss To Nadal

... everything,” he said. “First, dealing with the physical aspect, then getting myself quite ready, I thought, making the most of that. Then dealing with the health aspect and now with this.”. Raonic, 26, said he came into Melbourne nursing his thigh muscle after injuring it earlier this month in Brisbane. “I got it to pretty good shape,” he said. “We still had to monitor it and then today I hurt another aspect of it.”. He required treatment on the leg in the second set Wednesday. “I hope it’s nothing too serious,” added Raonic, who has struggled with adductor problems in the past. Raonic defeated Nadal in their last meeting, which came at the same tournament in Brisbane where Raonic said he tweaked his adductor. This time, Raonic said, “he played better than I did.”. The 30-year-old Nadal saved six set points in the second set, including two in the 13-minute tiebreaker. “There were some ...

Rafa Roars To Final Four

... highlights (QF). Sorry, your browser does not support the video player. Unforced Errors. Few players respond to losses better than Rafael Nadal. When Tomas Berdych beat him at the 2006 Madrid Masters and put his index finger to his lips to silence to Spanish crowd, Nadal and the thousands watching were infuriated. Nadal then beat Berdych the next 17 times they played. After losing to Roger Federer in the 2006 Wimbledon final, Nadal played the Swiss much tougher in their 2007 final rematch and then upended Federer in the 2008 decider, growing more adept on the lawns each year to counter Federer’s more natural grasscourt game. After being blown off the same court by Nick Kyrgios in the 2014 Wimbledon fourth round, Nadal was prepared for the Aussie’s explosive power the next time they met, in Rome, and turned the tables. If you can see where this pattern is going, then you know what happened when Nadal faced Milos Raonic in the Australian Open quarterfinals after falling to the towering Canadian two weeks earlier at the Brisbane International. Nadal ...

Fedal

... a friend. FOR the first time since Wimbledon 2008, Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer and Venus and Serena Williams have reached the last four of a grand slam. Nadal produced some inspired tennis to move within a match of the Australian Open final with a straight-sets win over Milos Raonic in their quarter-final on Rod Laver Arena. Nadal last won the title at Melbourne Park in 2009 but stayed on track for another crack with a 6-4 7-6 (9-7) 6-4 victory over the world No. 3 Canadian. The 30-year-old’s obstacle in the semi-final is Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov, who disposed of Belgian David Goffin in straight sets. Here’s what the Spaniard had to say after the match. ON BEING BACK TO HIS BEST. “I am not a very arrogant person so I always have doubts. So it is normal, even when I was winning a lot I had doubts, you can imagine I haven’t won and I have injuries. “But that is good I think, no, because when you have doubts you feel ready to work more. You know how tough all the victories is and I think I had a great career. At the same time, I had a lot of tough moments.”. An emotional Rafa Nadal after winning Source: Getty Images. ON HOW HE BEAT RAONIC. “Just fighting ...

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Rafael Nadal V Roger Federer Australian Open Final In The Making With Both Into Quarterfinals

... a lot of pressure all the time because his serve is huge and he's playing very aggressive from the baseline. So going to be a very tough match, but I hope to be ready for it. "I need to be very focused with my serve and play aggressive. If I am not playing aggressive, then I am dead, because he plays aggressive. "You know finally he going to have chances on the return because he decides to play with going for the shots.". RAONIC BATTLES FLU TO WIN. Raonic advanced after escaping with a 7-6 (6), 3-6, 6-4, 6-1 win over Roberto Bautista Agut. Raonic, who's been ill with the flu for the past few days, struggled at the outset against the 13 th-seeded Spaniard. He rallied from 5-1 down in the first-set tiebreaker to win the opening set, then was broken twice in the second set. But Bautista Agut began to falter midway through the third set when the roof at Hisense Arena was closed due to a passing rain shower, and he later had to call for a trainer to work on his leg. "I was very fortunate to get through today," Raonic said. "There were moments where it wasn't looking so good.". The Canadian had 75 winners, but also 55 unforced errors, including ...

Nadal Stops Big-serving Raonic In Bare-knuckle Brawl

... the set. The response to that minor crisis was a classic Nadal rearguard: his first ace of the night, a minor rollicking of a ball kid, one curling forehand winner to save yet another set point, then a determined hold. If Raonic’s veins were bulging, his opponent’s nerves were imperceptible. The ensuing tiebreak produced 13 minutes of nerve-shredding tennis, though not for Nadal. Again he withstood three set points to take it 9-7 – at his first opportunity. Raonic had played some sublime tennis too, lobbing the veteran with perfection, but he lacked the cutting edge when it mattered. The third set was emblematic of that: Raonic did plenty right but just enough wrong. Serving at 4-5, he crumbled to cough up three match points and couldn’t save one. Nadal sank to his knees in ecstasy, then rose to leap into the air, perhaps just to show that he still can. Raonic’s time might come relatively soon – though possibly not at the forthcoming Canada v Great Britain Davis Cup tie, as after this match he said his participation “was very much up in the air” as he has an abductor muscle injury. Nadal might yet win his 15 th grand slam title, and one that would genuinely ...