Indian Wells (AFP)
Spaniard Rafael Nadal continued his perfect career since the beginning of this year, and qualified for the quarter-finals of the Indian Wells International Masters 1000, by defeating American Riley Opelka 7-6, 7-6.
The 35-year-old, who won the Australian Open in a new record for the number of Grand Slam tournaments “21”, raised his consecutive victories to 18 since the beginning of 2022, and also kept his hopes up for a fourth title in California.
Nadal resisted the American “giant” of 2.11 meters, in addition to his missile transmissions, some of which reached 140 km / h.
Opelka saved the only break point in the first set, while Nadal waited for the tiebreak to lead 4-3, before the American committed three consecutive errors to lose the set.
In the second set, Nadal gave his opponent an opportunity to break his serve with a double mistake in the fifth game to pounce on the American, but without being able to take advantage of a break point in the next game, so Nadal saved three balls to break his serve in the seventh game, before he responded in turn by breaking his opponent’s serve. The score equals 4-4.
Nadal advanced in the tiebreak, and following Opelka saved two points once morest him, the Spaniard settled the result by winning the set by winning the match.
Serbian Miomir Kitsmanovic, 61, achieved a resounding surprise by defeating Italian sixth-seeded Matteo Berrettini 6-3, 6-7, 6-4, to qualify for the quarter-finals to meet American Taylor Fritz, who came from a set down in front of Australian Alex de Minaur to win 3-6, 6 -4 and 7-6.
Russian Andrey Rublev, the seventh, defeated Poland’s Hubert Hurkacz 7-6, 6-4, to set up a date with Bulgarian Grigor Dmitrov, who defeated American John Isner 6-3 7-6.
Rublev achieved his 12th consecutive victory, reaching the quarter-finals of the Indian Wells tournament for the first time in his career.
In the women’s event, 2015 champion Simona Halep qualified for the semi-finals with an easy victory over Croatian Petra Martic “79” 6-1, 6-1.
The former world number one, now 26, raised her attacking level to present her best match in California, which she settled in less than 55 minutes once morest an opponent who had never shown herself to be resilient and tired.
Halep, who was crowned champions of Roland Garros (2018) and Wimbledon (2019), met in the semi-finals with Poland’s fourth-ranked Iga Swientek, who defeated American Madison Keys (29), 6-1, 6-0 in 52 minutes.
