Rafael Nadal and Nick Kyrgios played a fantastic 3rd round in Rome. The match was extremely pleasant to watch because there was a strong contrast in styles. On one side Kyrgios was throwing everything he could at Nadal, on the other the Spaniard was defending extremely well to show some brilliance when he was shifting from defense to offense. 

The Australian won the opening set in the tie-break, but he didn’t start well the second set to immediately drop his serve. Eventually, Rafa broke Nick again to win the second set 6-2. The only difference between Rafa and Nick in the 3rd set was a break in the 3rd game. Finally, Nadal won 6-7 (3) 6-2 6-4. 

Nadal. Today it was an important victory 

Rafa was euphoric with his tennis to comment “I’m playing well, I feel like I am playing at the right level. Today was an important victory for me, of course, against a very difficult opponent. And coming back after a tough first set that I had a lot of opportunities. I believe, after the first six games I think I had more chances than him, but I had a couple of mistakes on those chances. And then on the tie-break, I hit one double fault and then he played great.” 

The quarters vs. Djokovic 

Rafa will play Djokovic in the quarter-final. The head to head is 25-23 for Djokovic that has won 10 of the last 11 matches.