This was a battle of two injured players, but at the end of the day Roger’s problem was the most fatal one,
Rafa is staging a great comeback also on hard courts to reach the semifinals in Indian Wells. Although he was not 100% he had a much better “management” of his injury to completely dominate an “absent” Roger.
The Swiss was clearly unable to move to succumb to Rafa without being able to oppose too much resistance. Roger was particularly weak on the forhand side to just avoid to even try to get some shots to avoid having more problems.
From Rafa
“I played a fantastic first set, in my opinion. The second set was strange,” added Nadal.
“The second set, I think Roger didn’t fight as usual. He probably had some problems and he didn’t feel enough comfortable to keep fighting. Both of us tried to play our best. I played much better than yesterday. My movements today were much, much better than yesterday, so I’m very happy for that, especially after a long match yesterday, to be able to compete well the next day.”
Next vs Berdych
Rafa will play the semifinal against Berdych. Head to Head is 12-3 for Rafa that won the last 11.
