Rafael Nadal yesterday held back time, for one match at least, when he rallied for a 4-6, 6-3, 6-7 (5/7), 6-3, 6-2 win over German teenager Alexander Zverev to reach the fourth round of the Australian Open.
The 14-time major winner is making a comeback after an extended injury layoff, yet he finished stronger in the four-hour, six-minute match at Rod Laver Arena as Zverev tightened up with cramping and nerves.
“I enjoyed a lot this great battle. I was losing the last couple of times in the fifth set and I said to myself: ‘today’s the day,’” said ninth-seeded Nadal, who had lost eight of the previous nine times he had trailed 2-1 in a best-of-five-set match.
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His 30-year-old legs, conditioned by 236 Grand Slam matches, carried him all the way.
“Well, fighting — and running a lot,” Nadal said, when asked to explain the difference. “I think you know, everybody knows how good Alexander is — he’s the future of our sport and the present, too.”
Serena Williams had an easier time, reaching the fourth round without dropping a set to stay on course in her bid for a record 23rd Grand slam title.
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Williams beat fellow American Nicole Gibbs 6-1, 6-3 and did not face a break point until she was serving for the match. Dropping serve in that game was her only lapse in a match that extended just beyond the hour — 63 minutes to be precise.
The six-time Australian Open champion next faces No. 16 Barbora Strycova.
“I don’t have anything to prove in this tournament here. Just doing the best I can,” Williams said. “Obviously, I’m here for one reason.”
Milos Raonic is pursuing his first major title, aiming to improve on his runs to the semi-finals in Australia and the final at Wimbledon last year. He reached the fourth round with a 6-2, 7-6 (7/5), 3-6, 6-3 win over No. 25 Gilles Simon and is next to play No. 13 Roberto Bautista Agut, who beat David Ferrer 7-5, 6-7 (6/8), 7-6 (7/3), 6-4.
Nadal is to get another veteran next after US Open semi-finalist Gael Monfils beat Philipp Kohlschreiber 6-3, 7-6 (7/1), 6-4.
In another gripping five-setter, but on an outside court, wild-card entry Denis Istomin followed his upset win over defending champion Novak Djokovic with a 6-4, 4-6, 6-4, 4-6, 6-2 victory over Pablo Carreno Busta.
No. 8 Dominic Thiem beat Benoit Paire 6-1, 4-6, 6-4, 6-4 to set up a fourth-round match against No. 11 David Goffin, who ended Ivo Karlovic’s run 6-3, 6-2, 6-4.
Zverev’s creative shot-making gave him a confident start. He had won his previous three matches against top-10 players and has been widely touted as a future Grand Slam champion. However, Nadal, Australian Open champion in 2009, did not let him get too far in front.
In an exchange of breaks in the fifth set, Nadal broke to open, then dropped his own serve, before breaking Zverev again.
Nadal finished with 43 winners and 34 unforced errors, while Zverev — hitting harder and trying more to find the lines — had 58 winners and 74 unforced errors.
In early women’s matches, Ekaterina Makarova led by a set and 4-0, but had a mid-match fade, needing three sets and almost three hours to finally beat WTA Finals champion Dominika Cibulkova 6-2, 6-7 (3/7), 6-3.
“An amazing fight,” Makarova said of her first win over sixth-seeded Cibulkova, the 2014 finalist at Melbourne Park. “I got, to be honest, a bit tight at 4-0 in the second set, but I’m still here.”
She is now to take on last year’s semi-finalist Johanna Konta, who beat former No. 1-ranked Caroline Wozniacki 6-3, 6-1 in a rematch of their fourth-round Australian Open encounter last year.
Mirjana Lucic-Baroni continued her unlikely run with a 3-6, 6-2, 6-3 win over Maria Sakkari.
Before this week, 34-year-old Lucic-Baroni had not won a match at Melbourne Park since her debut there in 1998. The 19-year gap in between match wins at a Grand Slam tournament broke the record set by Kimiko Date-Krumm.
The semi-finalist at Wimbledon in 1999 next plays No. 116-ranked US qualifier Jennifer Brady, who had never played in the main draw of a major before she qualified for this week.
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