World No. 1 Rafael Nadal yesterday won a battle of attrition against fellow left-hander Yoshihito Nishioka of Japan 7-6 (4), 6-4 to seal Spain’s spot in the final eight of the inaugural ATP Cup in Perth, Australia.
His long-time rival, world No. 2 Novak Djokovic, had an easier outing in Brisbane, strolling past Chile’s Cristian Garin 6-3, 6-3 to stay undefeated in the new year and to ensure that Serbia are to travel to Sydney for the knockouts, having won all three of their ties.
Nadal had to fight back twice from being a break down against the Japanese world No. 72 in the opening set before winning the tiebreaker, while he broke Nishioka’s serve to go up 5-4 in the second before holding serve for victory.
Photo: EPA-EFE
“It’s the first day I was playing under such heavy conditions. Two previous days, I had played in the night. The feeling on court was completely different,” Nadal said. “I played against an opponent who started the season on fire, winning two matches against two great players with very comfortable results. Today was a very, very tough one.”
It was Nadal’s third singles win in the US$15 million ATP Cup, which features 24 nations competing in Perth, Brisbane and Sydney over 10 days.
All six group winners and the two best second-placed teams are to advance to the final eight in Sydney.
Hosts Australia, Serbia, Britain, Russia and Spain have qualified.
Garin broke Djokovic in the second set to go up 3-1, but it seemed to bruise the seven-time Australian Open winner’s ego as he won the next five games to complete the victory.
“Sydney’s got a big Serbian community, hopefully the support can be as good as it was here, even better,” Djokovic said.
Poland’s Hubert Hurkacz also picked up his third singles win of the tournament with a 3-6, 6-4, 7-6 (5) upset over world No. 4 Dominic Thiem of Austria in Sydney.
It was the second loss in the new season for Thiem, who also lost to Croatia’s Borna Coric in his opening match.
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