Rafael Nadal vs. Kei Nishikori: Score, Reaction from 2016 Indian Wells

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at Internationaled.org

Published: March 18, 2016

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Fighting off a sluggish start, Rafael Nadal reached the semifinals of the BNP Paribas Open, defeating Kei Nishikori 6-4, 6-3, Friday in Indian Wells, California.

The result continues Nadal's head-to-head dominance over Nishikori, with the 29-year-old Spaniard now victorious in eight of their nine meetings.

This was arguably Nadal's best performance of the tournament. He looked shaky against Gilles Muller before ultimately prevailing and saw a noticeable drop in the second set of his eventual third-round win over Fernando Verdasco.

Both players advanced to the quarterfinals after having fought off match points in their previous matches. Nadal was down 5-2 in the final set before knocking out 18-year-old Alexander Zverev, while Nishikori needed tiebreakers in the second and third sets to go his way against John Isner.

Nishikori was cruising early in the first set Friday, jumping out to an 3-1 early lead. He was moving Nadal all around the court, to the extent that Nadal was having a hard time arriving to the ball in time to set up for his shots.

Up two break points, Nishikori instead let the fifth game slip away, and Nadal trimmed the gap to one game, 2-3. Although the game didn't come at a pivotal point in the match, something seemed to change in Nishikori. He started losing sharpness on his groundstrokes, and his frustration grew more and more as Nadal turned the tables. 

Tennis writer Carole Bouchard believes Friday was emblematic of a larger problem for Nishikori:



Nadal won the first set 6-4, and his forehand winner on set point illustrated how Nishikori was at times powerless to stop the onslaught, via TennisTV:



It's crazy to think about the roller-coaster ride that is the 14-time Grand Slam champion's journey through the BNP Paribas Open so far, as noted by Sports Illustrated's Jon Wertheim:



The second set was a continu...
Article Source: Bleacher Report - Tennis

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