Rafael Nadal sealed his 900th career victory after a 6-3 6-2 7-6(4) win over a valiant Maximillian Marterer.
The Spaniard survived a mini-blip in the opening set as after the losing the fist two games he reeled off five consecutive games for a 5-2 lead. The German had some very powerful groundstrokes and did cause the ten time a lot of problems, especially when unleashing his massive forehand. However Nadal’s defence was once again spectacular as he sealed the opening set in 44 minutes.
The second set was much smoother for the world number one as he secured the break in the very first game with momentum quickly drifting towards the Spaniard. The world number 70 attempted different tactics against Nadal, with none of them really proving successful. The defending champion returned much better in the second set and that was justified as he broke in the seventh game for a convincing 5-2 lead. The Spaniard held to 15 to take a commanding two sets to love lead.
The third set was much tighter as Marterer came out of his shell and started to be aggressive off both forehand and backhand wings. The German’s break in the fourth game was soon cancelled out by the legendary Spaniard who knew that he had to fight for every point. There were no breaks of serve so a tiebreak loomed, which resulted in the Spaniard displaying his incredible defence. The top seed took his second match point to seal his 900th career victory on the ATP World Tour.
The win means Nadal extends his winning run in Paris and books his place into the quarter-finals, where he will play Diego Schwartzman, who fought from two sets to love down to beat Kevin Anderson 1-6 2-6 7-5 7-6(0) 6-2. The Argentinian will contest his second grand slam quarter-final on Wednesday against Nadal.
