Seven-time Rome champion Rafael Nadal fought back from a set down to edge past Nick Kyrgios 6-7 (3-7) 6-2 6-4 in a blockbuster third round match to reach the quarter final at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia in Rome.
Both players traded breaks at the start of the match. Kyrgios fended off one set point at 4-5, when Nadal missed a backhand return. In the tie-break Kyrgios reeled off four break points from 3-3 to clinch the first set with a forehand winner.
Nadal fought back by breaking to love in the first game of the second set but he failed to convert two break point chances in a 11-point third game before getting another break to take a 5-1 lead. Kyrgios failed to convert any of his three break point chances at 2-5 before receiving treatment for a hip flexor injury.
Nadal converted his fourth break point chance in the third game of the decider to take a 2-1 lead. Kyrgios came back from 0.40 down to hold his serve in the fifth game for 2-3 but Nadal did not look back in his next three service games to take his first win against Kyrgios, who beat the Spaniard in their only previous head-to-head match at Wimbledon in 2014.
