By Richard Pagliaro | Thursday, May 5, 2016
Rafael Nadal lost four of the first five games then roared back crushing Sam Querrey, 6-4, 6-2, to set up a Madrid quarterfinal with Joao Sousa.
Photo credit: Mutua Madrid Open
A heavy forehand from Sam Querrey dislodged a clump of clay as Rafael Nadal waved his Babolat racquet at the buzzing ball in vain.
Cranking his forehand into the corners from the start, Querrey bullied Nadal around the court reducing the King of Clay to the role of retriever storming out to a 4-1 lead.
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Blown out at the beginning, Nadal brushed the dirt off his Nikes, dug in closer to the baseline and stormed back to thwart the threat from the hard-hitting American.
The four-time champion completely turned the match around reeling off 11 of the last 13 games crushing Querrey, 6-4, 6-2, to advance to the Madrid Open quarterfinals.
It was Nadal's 12th straight victory. Nadal will face Joao Sousa for a place in the final four. Sousa subdued Jack Sock, 6-1, 6-7 (3), 6-2.
"He's a great player. We know each other very well," said Nadal, who thrashed Sousa, 6-1, 6-0 in the 2014 Rio quarterfinals. We have been practicing together in Mallorca this December. When he's in advanced rounds he's a very dangerous player. He had an amazing victory today against Jack Sock, that's a very dangerous, good player, especially here in altitude. He will be ready for the match of tomorrow. He will be confident. I hope to be ready for play a good match."
Though Querrey was winless in three prior meetings with the nine-time Roland Garros champion, he had won a set each time they played. The 37th-ranked American came out with a clear game plan: Serve big and crush any forehand he saw. The plan, combined with Querrey's flame-thrower forehand, ignited a fast start.
Knowing Nadal favors the slider serve wide on the ad side, Querrey danced around his backhand and plastered a forehand return winner to break for 2-0.
Querrey won 12 of the first 14 points seizing a 3-0 lead.
Punctuating his first hold with a "Vamos!", Nadal was muted in the American's service games. Querrey cracked three successive aces slamming shut an emphatic hold for 4-1.
Continuing to unload, Querrey build a 40-15 lead, one point from 5-2, but blinked. The 6'6" American is not as comfortable around net as Nadal and when he nudged a half volley into net he gave the Spaniard a second break point. Drawing a forehand error, Nadal erupted with another "Vamos!" breaking back for 3-4.
"In that moment I decided to step back a little bit and change a little bit the game, open it a little bit more, try to return the ball properly, try to close the gap so that he couldn't just go for the gaps," Nadal said. "I think it worked out. But until that moment he was putting the balls on the lines and it was difficult. He was serving fast and it was tough for me. He started hitting the ball very hard and doing it well and hitting good shots. I had to try to neutralize that."
Empowered, Nadal plowed through a love hold to level.
Moving without the ball was key to the comeback. Nadal dropped back behind the baseline to give himself a better look on return, then crept closer to the line during rallies reducing available space for his opponent and extending rallies.
"I had the confidence that if I managed to step in I could turn it around," Nadal said. "If I could play longer rallies, more than three balls, I knew that things could turn around. Luckily that's what happened. I saved that important point when we were at 4-2. Then from 4-2 I managed break him. From there on things went more or less well."
Once the fifth-seeded Spaniard found his range and rhythm he began stretching the court and testing Querrey's weaker wing. A fine running dig from outside the doubles alley coaxed a running error; Nadal broke for the second time in a row.
Prowling the baseline, Nadal thumped a bounce smash into the corner to close the 38-minute opener on a five-game tear.
Despite a 17 to 4 advantage in winners, Querrey had nothing to show for it, but a competitive hangover.
A rattled Querrey could not find a hole in Nadal's defenses dropping serve to start the second set. When Nadal held for a 2-0 lead, he had reeled seven straight games.
Losing some depth on his forehand, Nadal fell into a triple break-point hole. On his third break point, Querrey unloaded a cluster of massive forehands, pushing the Spaniard into defensive positions before breaking back. That was short-lived as Querrey pushed a forehand drop volley wide, giving Nadal a fourth break for 3-2.
An hour after a slow start, it was a sprint through the finish. Nadal broke for 5-2 and zapped an inside-out forehand to close a match that began as a battle and ended as a rout in 69 minutes.
Back-to-back title runs in Monte Carlo and Barcelona infuse Nadal with the confidence he can summon solutions even when getting steamrolled.
"It's obvious that when you win, when you are winning, when you are with confidence, with positive confidence, the victory helps to keep winning, and the loses, defeats helps to keep losing," Nadal said. "So it's obvious that the calm that the victories gives you helps you in tough moments like today."