World No.2 Rafael Nadal has stormed into the fourth round of the Australian Open after thrashing home favourite Alex de Minaur 6-1, 6-2, 6-4, on the Rod Laver Arena.
Seeking his first title in Melbourne for a decade, the Spaniard produced a comprehensive performance against his inexperienced rival. This year is Nadal’s 56th appearance in the main draw of a grand slam compared to de Minaur’s eigth. He made his major debut at the 2003 Wimbledon Championships, when his Australian rival was four-years-old.
The disparity in experience between the two was telling on the court. Just like their encounter in Wimbledon last year, Nadal’s sublime defensive skills bullied a gutsy de Minaur around the court as the next gen star struggled to stay within contention. It looked as if the highly anticipated match would be an epic after the first three games took 23 minutes to be completed. That was until Nadal turned up the heat by storming through the match. Hitting six aces and 37 winners, along with 33 unforced errors.
“I think I hit some good serves, I’m happy with that. I think I played a very solid match.” Nadal said during his on-court interview.
“I want to congratulate Alex for a great start to the season. I think he has an amazing future.”
One telling factor of the encounter was de Minaur’s costly error count, which tallied up to 24. Nicknamed demon due to his impressive speed around the court, the rising star is billed a future star of men’s tennis. Recently winning his maiden ATP title in Sydney at the age of 19. Despite the one-sided score, the world No.29 demonstrated plenty of fighting spirit as he saved eight out of the 13 break points he faced. Then in the final set, De Minaur prevented Nadal converting five match points, before the Spaniard prevailed on his sixth. Capitalising from a de Minaur forehand that drifted long.
“He’s a big fighter. He is super quick.” The 11-time French Open champion said in tribute to his younger opponent.
“I played a great (final) game until 40-0, and then I didn’t put a first serve in until deuce.
“How he saved those match points was unbelievable. He is probably the fastest (player) on the tour.”
The Friday night victory has rewarded the Spaniard with his 250th win in a grand slam. 60 of those victories have occurred at the Australian Open. It is also the 43rd time he has reached the fourth round of a grand slam tournament.
In the fourth round, Nadal will take on Czech player Tomas Berdych in what will be their 24th meeting on the tour. Berdych, who missed most of 2018 due to a back injury, battled his way past Argentine 18th seed Diego Schwartzman 5-7, 6-3, 7-5, 6-4. It is the 11th time in his career that Berdych reached the last 16 in Melbourne.
“It’s true he has been outside the tour for a while. He had the chance to play the first week of the season and did very well. When you are coming back from a tough period of injury and you’re playing well, the energy is even higher. I predict a very difficult match.” Nadal previewed.
Nadal has a 23-4 winning head-to-head record against the Czech.