Can Rafael Nadal still bring the goods over any player?

     The struggle is real despite being one fo the top players on the ATP tour. Rafael Nadal at times is modest on his ability and capacity to outbeat so many of his opponents. The fourth round of the Australian Open finds Rafael Nadal opposite Nick Kyrgios. Everyone knows the skills of each but a match can change with the flip of a coin and the Spaniard feels the pressure as every other player. "He's one of the highest talents we have on the tour," Nadal had said after his 4-set victory over the Aggressive Aussie. Kyrgios is one of the highest talents but also the toughest. The No. 23 ranked on tour, the Australian was able to keep up with Nadal the No. 1 in the world in grand style. Most say nearly the entire match Kyrgios was blasting shots and strokes with Nadal after going through a phase of starting off slow. But the Spaniard managed well to come up and win the opening set 6-3 partly on Kyrgios gifting him the points through unforced errors.

     The rhythm of the match changed after Kyrgios got his act together, settled down and bashed balls all over the court making it difficult for the Spaniard to return shots adequately. It was his overabundance of quality playing that Kyrgios won the second set 6-3. The third went to Nadal who managed to win the tiebreak and he admitted that after losing the second set "I tried to recover mentally..." He did recover for the victory third set tiebreak in fine fashion. It's not so easy for anyone even Nadal to return Kyrgios' serves and he said that "Nick has an amazing serve". It might have proved a struggle for the Spaniard to stand all the way at the baseline area to have space in giving a good and winning return-a-serve which he chatted about with former ATP player now tennis commentator John McEnroe. There were times that both players had blew solid chances of winning points with their nervous-like double faulting. When games had leveled at 5-all, Kyrgios double faults and then it was Nadal's turn to make the deal and he copycatted with his own double-fault.

     Rafael Nadal reputes himself as working on and maintaining his mental composure to help his physical game and each time he has proven himself. It took over three hours to finish the match but winning that third set gave the Spaniard the fortitude and pitch to come up with the stuff it takes to defeat Kyrgios. The Aussie at times gave up the gifts to Nadal making it easy for him to crank up points by spoiling a few drop shots when the Spaniard was positioned at his most vulnerable.

     There were times when Kyrgios nearly threw in all kinds of shots at Nadal, but when the Spaniard is in the zone, there is no stopping him. Kyrgios knew that soon the match would be over with him getting the short end of the racket. He took the loss of 3-6, 6-3, 6-7, 6-7 gracefully. Nadal was glad and relieved that the match was over, especially with the big serving Nick Kyrgios. The Spaniard may know how to kep his mental stamina in check but admits upon playing the Aussie that it really isn't over till it is and says "Against Nick, you are never under control."

from Tennis World USA https://ift.tt/2GsNOU6