Rafa Nadal won one of those matches he used to win in his great years by defeating Alexander Zverev 6-7, 6-0, 7-5. The match was the confirmation of various factors: on the one hand, that Nadal is on a whole new level confidence-wise and, on the other, that Alexander Zverev has the tennis world at his feet.
Before the clash Nadal claimed that the German will one day be the number one player on the planet and, on the evidence of their encounter in the BNP Paribas Open fourth round, the Majorcan wasn’t merely feeding his opponent’s ego.
Zverev took the first break of the match at 2-2 in the first set with a blistering cross court backhand, a shot that is right up there with anyone’s on tour. Another stat worth mentioning in this match is that, on average, Zverev’s second serve was coming down at a similar pace to Nadal’s first, hence the Spaniard’s problems to hold on to his serve. He did manage to strike back in the opening set at 5-4 down when Zverev dragged a backhand wide but the German took the tiebreak 10-8 after Nadal failed to close it out on serve at 8-7. The first set in itself had taken a whopping one hour and nine minutes.
In the second set, Nadal came out roaring, playing some stunning tennis from the back but also showing an almost flawless touch at the net every time he ghosted in. After locking a double break to go 3-0 up, Zverev decided he would save up energy for the final set, in what was a demonstration of his maturity and tennis knowledge. The set was a whitewash as Nadal claimed his second bagel of the week.
Zverev woke up from his hibernation right at the start of the third set and showed an innate talent to switch his top level back on when he wants to, and he broke Nadal to go 2-0 up. The young German raced away to a 5-3 lead but missed a straightforward volley on match point after setting up the entire rally perfectly. This would prove to be a turning point for both players as Zverev never managed to put it behind him and Nadal sucked away his confidence to wrap up the final set 7-5 to record one of those wins that kickstart a season. The tennis on display was of the highest level and for the first time in a long period, Nadal managed to find a way to the finish line like he did on so many occasions throughout his career.
John Isner or Kei Nishikori will be next to test this new found confidence in the quarter finals.
