World No. 1 Rafael Nadal overcame a second-set fightback from Jarkko Nieminen to reach the Mutua Madrid Open quarter-finals with a 6-1, 6-4 victory on Thursday in the Spanish capital.
Defending champion Nadal let slip a 3-1 lead in the second set and saved a break point in the ninth game before breaking the Finn to claim victory in 80 minutes. The Spaniard reached his 63rd ATP World Tour Masters 1000 quarter-final as he improved to a perfect 8-0 FedEx ATP Head2Head record over Nieminen.
After the match, Rafa said: "During the first hour I played better than yesterday, more dynamically and with more intensity. I knew what I was doing with every ball with no surprises. I was defending properly and knowing what was happening in every single moment. Perhaps that's something I wasn't able to do in recent weeks. "
"The negative thing is in the match I had an opportunity to close it out with great feelings and I made a few mistakes in a row. That made the match more complicated. I gave the opportunity to Jarkko to play more aggressive and with more determination."
"The negative thing is in the match I had an opportunity to close it out with great feelings and I made a few mistakes in a row. That made the match more complicated. I gave the opportunity to Jarkko to play more aggressive and with more determination."
In Madrid quarterfinal, Rafa will play against Tomas Berdych of Czech Republic. On head to head, Rafa leads Berdych: 17-3.
VAMOS RAFA !!!
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