By Chris Oddo | Sunday September 2, 2018
Nikoloz Basilashvili put his best foot forward but Rafael Nadal found the solutions to take him out in four entertaining sets.
Photo Source: Alex Pantling/Getty
Rafael Nadal kicked off week two of the U.S. Open with yet another hair-raising performance, and once again he was made to work extremely hard by an opponent who played exceptionally well.
Nadal absorbed numerous body blows from Nikoloz Basilashvili, a 26-year-old Georgian playing in the second week at a major for the first time, and eventually emerged victorious in four tough sets, 6-3, 6-3, 6-7(4), 6-4.
“Two matches in a row, very tough ones,” Nadal told Darren Cahill in a post-match interview at Arthur Ashe Stadium. “I had a big chance, I think, at the beginning of the third, with 0-40—probably if I made that break, two sets to love and a break up at the beginning, maybe things would have been different.”
It was much more work than Nadal would have preferred, but Basilashvili deserves full credit, not just for snagging a set off of Nadal, but for putting a real scare into the Spaniard in set four, when he broke back to level at three all and threatened—at least for a moment—to force the Spaniard to five.
In the third set alone, Basilashvili won more points than he did in the entirety of his previous encounter with Nadal, which came in 2017 in the third round at Roland Garros.
Nadal wouldn’t allow rising Russian Karen Khachanov to push him to five sets on Day 5, and the three-time U.S. Open champion was equally belligerent on Day 7 against the 26-year-old from Tblisi.
He broke back with a cannon down-the-line forehand winner and held in his final two service games to lock up his quarterfinal spot in three hours and 18 minutes.
“Lot of credit to him,” Nadal said. “He was playing great, hitting the ball very, very strong. Seems like I was not in control of the point even when I was hitting good shots, he was always able to come back with very strong shots, so it was a tough one and I’m very happy to be through.”
Having played nearly eight hours in his last two rounds, Nadal will need to rest and recuperate before his next challenge—he’ll face Austria’s Dominic Thiem in the quarterfinals.
Thiem recorded his first win over Kevin Anderson on a hardcourt in six tries to earn his first trip to the U.S. Open quarterfinals with a 7-5, 6-2, 7-6(2) win.
“It’s going to be a tough one,” said Nadal. “He’s a great opponent. He hits the ball very strong, too. Big serve, and he’s playing great.”
For now, Nadal has held up well. The Spaniard showed a small crack in his armor on Day 5, when he needed to receive treatment for a sore right knee, and he played much of his win over Khachanov with strapping around the knee.
But on Sunday he needed no strapping, and moved brilliantly. Nadal was close to taking things in straight sets, but missed a makeable forehand at 6-all in the breaker that handed Basilashvili a set point.
The Georgian took his chance, and continued to push despite fatigue. He fell behind by a break in set four but rebounded to get back on serve.
But Nadal had too much in the tank, and too much game, in the end.
He improves to 57-10 lifetime at the U.S. Open and surges into his 36th career Grand Slam quarterfinal.