BEVERLY HILLS, May 06, (THEWILL) – The tennis King of Clay, Rafael Nadal, did not have to sweat much in moving into the quarter-finals of the Madrid Open after serving to straight sets victory over Alexei Popyrin, the right-handed Australian.
Qualifying for the quarter-finals in search of his sixth title in the Spanish capital was a comfortable, though not exactly a one-way affair. However, in a little over one hour, Nadal overcame the 21-year-old Popyrin 6-3 6-3.
The clay event was perfect for the 20-time Grand Slam champion ahead of his bid for a record-extending 14th French Open title in Paris when Roland-Garros commences at the end of this month. As has been the case, Nadal is favourite to clinch the French Open again, after recently taking an unprecedented 13th Barcelona crown.
Popyrin played a good start to Thursday’s match and roared out of the traps by holding to love before clocking up three break points on the world number two’s serve to signify his intent not to cower before the Clay God.
Expectedly, Nadal rallied under the intense early pressure to hold and then broke twice to snare a stranglehold on the proceedings with the typical Nadal power. Even after the Australian, ranked 76th in the world, pegged one break back, Nadal kept his cool to break again and take the opener in 43 minutes total.
The Spaniard took the initiative in the second set and broke to love, reeling off five games in a row. The blistering pace was too much for Popyrin and Nadal eased through the gears to serve out victory on his second match point. He thus booked his spot in the last eight in Madrid for the 15th time and for the 94th occasion on clay, in an immaculate showing on his most preferred surface.
The world number two will next meet either of Britain’s Dan Evans or fifth seed Alexander Zverev for a place in the semi-finals.
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
