Rafael Nadal got through to the quarter-final of the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro after battling past 15th seed Gilles Simon 7-6 (7-5) 6-3. It’s the second time in his career that Nadal reached at least the quarter-final stage at the Olympic Games eight years after Beijing 2008 when he won the singles gold medal.
Nadal and Simon have enjoyed a solid start to their Olympic tournament, reaching the Round of 16 without dropping a set.
The nine-time French Open champion, who was the Spanish flag bearer during the Olympic Games Opening Ceremony last Friday, had to dig deep in the first set when he faced three break points on his second service game. Simon got the first break in the third game to love to take a 2-1 lead as Nadal hit his forehand down the line into the net.
Nadal earned three break-back point chances in the fourth game. The Spanish legend missed his first two chances, but converted his third break-back point opportunity to draw level to 2-2. Nadal broke again to 30 in the sixth game to take a 4-2 lead. Simon gave the 2008 Olympic gold medallist the chance to serve for a 5-2 lead, but the Frenchman broke back on his second chance in the seventh game for 3-4 and held his service game to draw level to 4-4.
Both players went on serve in the following games until a roller coaster tie-break. Nadal raced out to a 5-1 lead, but Simon fought back by winning four consecutive points to draw level to 5-5. Nadal won the final two points and closed out 7-5 as Simon hit his passing shot wide after 75 minutes.
Match proceedings got even better for the Spaniard as Nadal had a dream start to the second set by breaking serve to 30 in the first game of the second set. He consolidated the break to 15 in the second game and rallied from 30-40 down on Simon’s serve to get the double break in the third game. Nadal backed up the break in the fourth game to race out to a 4-0 lead.
Simon bounced back by holding his next two service games for 2-5. The Frenchman rallied from 15-30 to get one of the two breaks back as Nadal was serving for the match. Nadal earned a match point at 30-40 on Simon’s serve and got the final break to seal a straight-set win after two hours and 2 minutes. Nadal has extended his win-loss record against Simon to 8-1. Simon achieved his only win over Nadal in Madrid in 2008.
Yesterday’s rain forced the postponement of all 26 matches. That means that the 14-time Grand Slam champion will face a very busy day, as he will return to the court later today for the men’s doubles and the mixed double. First, he will play alongside his compatriot Marc Lopez against Canadians Daniel Nestor and Vasek Pospisil in the men’s doubles match. Then he will team up with Garbine Muguruza for the mixed doubles match against Lucie Hradecka and Lucie Safarova from Czech Republic.
