Nadal

Nadal, Federer Set For Special Open Final

... him. The same was true for 35-year-old Federer, who had fallen to No.17 in the world after six months out following knee surgery last year. The legends were resigned to playing mini tennis with some juniors last time they met on a court, but on Sunday will square off in a grand slam final many - including themselves - felt was beyond them. "It's special (to) play with Roger again in a final of a grand slam. I cannot lie. It's great," Nadal said. QUINN ROONEY/GETTY IMAGES. Rafael Nadal of Spain serves in his first round match against Florian Mayer of Germany. "It's exciting for me and for both of us that we are still there and we still fighting for important events. So that's important for us, I think. That's very special.". Ad Feedback. Former world No.1 Andy Roddick earlier in the week described a Nadal-Federer final as potentially "the biggest match ever in Australian Open history - and maybe grand slam ...

Rafael Nadal Vs Grigor Dimitrov, Australian Open Result

... behind the baseline and rips a backhand winner. Then into the net, 30-0. Excellent defence from Nadal and eventually prizes the error out of Dimitrov as he drifts wide. He holds with an ace. Nadal *6-3, 5-7, 0-1 Dimitrov. Real improvement in that set from Dimitrov but he still needed five set points and three breaks of serve to claim it 7-5. Clinical start to the third set from Dimitrov, working the angles and finding his length. He quickly moves into a 40-0 lead. Tight call goes against Nadal with a forehand down the line. Dimitrov holds, and Nadal is struggling to assert himself all of a sudden. DIMITROV WINS SECOND SET: 7-5. Nadal serving to stay in the set once again. He's already saved four set points and lost his serve twice. What a fighter. Down the T, extra bite, and Dimitrov nets. 15-0. Nadal almost finds a sensational forehand down the line but ...

Nadal Advances To Set Up Showdown With Raonic

... this far at the 2015 French Open. Rafael Nadal defeated Gael Monfils 6-3, 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 in a fourth-round match at the Australian Open to reach his 30 th Grand Slam quarterfinal. Cameron Spencer/Getty Images. It also showed that after a couple of months off to rest his injured left wrist, he is still a contender at the majors. He hasn't won an Australian title since 2009. He went up a break early in the first two sets, had his chances in the third before Monfils rallied, and then traded breaks in the fourth before breaking the acrobatic Frenchman to win. Overall, he converted six of 17 break point chances. Raonic hit 33 aces and 75 winners but had nine double-faults and 55 unforced errors, and seemed to get on a roll after spiking his racket into the court in frustration in the ...

Rafael Nadal Sets Up Classic Aussie Open Final With Roger Federer As He Edges Tough Semi Wearing £720k Watch

... on by the small number of Bulgarians in the crowd. And keeping with the trend of the previous two sets, the pair matched each other all the way. Nadal was tiring which was evident of a couple of sloppy forehands and a ripple of chants came from the small section of Bulgarian fans in the crowd trying to cheer on their compatriot. With the score tied at 4-4, Nadal continued to work him over and was just a game away from his fourth final in Melbourne. But Dimitrov proved an extremely tough nut to crack. He levelled the set to 5-5 and then 6-6 before winning the tie break and taking it to one last set. Five hours of epic tennis finally looked like it was coming to a conclusion when Nadal broke Dimitrov in the ninth set of the fifth game. A mouth-watering clash with old rival Roger Federer awaits. Serving for the game he held his nerve and fist pumped ...

Milos Raonic Knocked Out Of Australian Open By Rafael Nadal

... He lost to Andy Murray in the 2016 semis. Raonic was the highest remaining seed in the quarter-finals after top-seed Murray lost to Germany's Mischa Zverev in the fourth round and second-seed Novak Djokovic was upset in the second round by Denis Isotomin.​. Nadal returns to the final four at a Grand Slam tournament for the first time since winning the 2014 French Open. His return ensures there will be three players over 30-years-old in the men's semifinals, equalling the Open era mark set at Roland Garros in 1968. Nadal will play Grigor Dimitrov on Friday, the day after 35-year-old Roger Federer takes on 31-year-old Stan Wawrinka in an all-Swiss semifinal. "Even when I was winning a lot I had doubts, you can imagine I had more when I had injuries," Nadal said. "I think I had a great career, but at the same time I had a lot of tough moments. That makes me enjoy even more the good moments I'm having today."​. Serena through to semis. Serena Williams reached her 10 th consecutive Grand Slam semifinal, and kept her bid alive for a record 23 rd major title, with a ...

Federer-nadal Could Be Nureyev And Fonteyn Dancing For Last Time

... the closest definition to beautiful as you can imagine playing any sport. Ali in his prime would have been a beautiful way to watch boxing. Definitely. Roger also reminds me of a super hero in comic books. Real super heroes like Superman; even when he is under extreme pressure he never looks fully extended. If there is an avalanche or he has to lift up a mountain, he never looks like he is straining. He lifts the mountain with one hand. He never sweats. That’s Federer: you never feel that he is fully, fully extended. You always feel there is something left in reserve. That’s why when he fell at Wimbledon this year against Raonic everybody gasped. Nobody could understand it. It was almost religious, the fall. It was almost like Christ falling for the third time. People had seen something they didn’t think could happen. They saw ...

Nadal Beats Dimitrov In 5 Sets To Reach Final

... game of the second set. Nadal got back on terms during an exchange of service breaks from the seventh game to the ninth, with both players double-faulting on key points. Dimitrov had a chance to serve for the set at 5-3 but was broken. Nadal saved four set points in the 10 th game, serving at 4-5, but couldn't hold on again in the 12 th game, sending backhand long at 15-40. 8:25 p.m. Rafael Nadal has won the first set 6-3 in his Australian Open semifinal against No. 15-seeded Grigor Dimitrov. The 14-time major winner, returning from an extended injury layoff for his left wrist, broke Dimitrov's serve in the fourth game and closed out in 35 minutes. No. 9-seeded Nadal and Dimitrov are playing off for a spot in Sunday's final against Roger Federer. 7:20 p.m. Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Lucie Safarova enhanced their reputation as the dominant duo by winning the Australian Open women's doubles final 6-7 (3), 6-3, 6-3 over Andrea Hlavackova and China's Peng Shuai. It extended the pair's unbeaten record to 12 matches at Melbourne Park - they won the 2015 doubles title, but ...

Rafael Nadal V Roger Federer Australian Open Final In The Making With Both Into Quarterfinals

... almost immediately, holding his serve to love and then upping the pressure even more. CAMERON SPENCER/GETTY IMAGES. Dominic Thiem was seeded eighth. Monfils was able to save one match point with a scorching forehand winner down the line. He was unable to save the next, with an equally ambitious shot down the opposite side just missing. Ad Feedback. Neither his opponent's aggression or unpredictability came as any surprise to Nadal, who will play his first quarter-final since the 2015 French Open and could make his first semi-final since the same event in 2014. "The match was tough. He had chances then. Is true that I had my chances before, but I had some mistakes. He started to serve huge, no?" said Nadal. "Sometimes is tough to play against Gael when you don't know what he going to do. First two sets were a little bit more normal, normal tennis. Then he start to play more aggressive. "He start to serve huge and play big ...

Nadal Breaks Fifth-set Hex With Confidence-building Win Over Zverev

... sets. Then, last fall, at the U. S. Open, he had watched as 22-year-old Lucas Pouille caught him at the finish line in a fifth-set tiebreaker. Now Nadal was back in Rod Laver Arena, deep into a dogfight against another young hot shot with a cannon for a right arm, 19-year-old Alexander Zverev. The German is the type of a player—tall, hard-hitting, with a two-handed backhand—who gives Nadal fits. For the past two hours, he had been belting serves, forehands and backhands past Rafa, and he had just won a third-set tiebreaker to go up two sets to one. At the end of that tiebreaker, Zverev, despite his inexperience, had been the bolder and more clutch player. Nadal, for all of his legendary heart and fight, had been the cautious and careful—and, at this point, losing—player. Still, Rafa had been brilliant for long stretches of this match. He had hit and run with the panache of his glory years, and the forehand that had grown tentative in 2016 had become a reliable weapon again. While he couldn’t match the power of Zverev, who would ...