By Chris Oddo | Wednesday May 11, 2016
Rafael Nadal won for the 13th time in 14 career meetings with Germany’s Philipp Kohlschreiber to set up a highly anticipated round of 16 meeting with Nick Kyrgios.
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Nadal’s 6-3, 6-3 victory marks the Spaniard’s 14th victory in his last 15 matches. After winning his ninth career title in Monte-Carlo and Barcelona this spring, Nadal is looking more and more like a serious threat to challenge Novak Djokovic for the Roland Garros title.
He did nothing to curtail his confidence on Wednesday as he took control of Kohlschreiber late in the first set and never looked back.
Nadal’s backhand was especially ornery, and it paved the way to three critical breaks that allowed the 29-year-old to open up the match against Kohlschreiber.
Nadal drew first blood late in the first set when he used a backhand down the line to draw the error from the German for a 5-3 lead. He would serve out the set in the next game without any trouble.
A clean backhand winner gave Nadal a break and a 3-2 lead in set two, and when Kohlschreiber answered with a break of his own in the next game, Nadal dialed in the backhand again in the ensuing game, striking a clean winner again off that wing after climbing back from 40-15 in the game to break decisively for 4-3.
For good measure the Spaniard broke again in the ninth game to close affairs in 83 minutes.
Nadal improves to 26-7 on the season and 48-4 lifetime at Rome. He owns seven titles at the Foro Italico but has not won in Rome since 2013.
Kyrgios rolled past 10th-seeded Milos Raonic, 7-6(5), 6-3 on Wednesday for his third consecutive win over the Canadian.
The Aussie stunned a then No. 1 Nadal at Wimbledon in 2014 when he defeated him in four sets to reach the quarterfinal.
“He has all the shots,” said Nadal. “I need to try to play long and push him a little bit back because if not it’s going to be very difficult.”