By Richard Pagliaro | Wednesday, March 13, 2019
Three-time champion Rafael Nadal has rolled into his 11th Indian Wells quarterfinal without surrendering a set.
Photo credit: @BNP Paribas Open
Conventional wisdom says Indian Wells’ slower, high-bouncing courts suit Rafael Nadal’s punishing baseline attack.
The three-time champion continues to make quick work grinding opponents to the ground.
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Arriving on Stadium 1 for the first match of the day, Nadal showed Serbian qualifier Filip Krajinovic the door, 6-3, 6-4, cruising into his 11th career Indian Wells quarterfinal.
The day after world No. 1 Novak Djokovic, sixth-seeded Kei Nishikori and 2014 US Open champion Marin Cilic were all dumped out of the desert draw, Nadal swept his third consecutive straight-sets win.
The Australian Open finalist wasn’t flawless—Nadal dropped serve for the first time since the Australian Open, misfired on a few forehands and served only 43 percent in the opening set—but he brought his familiar fire, played crucial points with purpose and passion and commanded the court in crucial stages.
Nadal banged seven aces, won 19 of 23 second-serve points, broke in Krajinovic’s opening service game and never trailed charging into his second quarterfinal of the season where he will play either eighth-seeded John Isner or 12th-seeded Russian Karen Khachanov.
Though he's still stereotyped as a slower-surface player by some, the 11-time Roland Garos champion says his track record shows he can win on any surface.
"I always liked to play here. I played a lot of positive events here," Nadal said. "But, no, no. I can tell you that people most of the time thinks, because I won a lot on clay, think that if the ball is slow and the court is slower it's good for me. And I invite you to analyze in the events that I had success on hard, if the courts have been quick or fast.
"More times the way, the tournaments that I won on hard have been on the fast conditions, not slow conditions. At the end of the day, it's about play well, if I am playing well I know I did well here. But if I am playing well, I can play well probably in all the surfaces, no?"
The 33-time Masters champion got off to a sluggish start working out of a love-30 hole to open after a rare 11 a.m. start time.
"Of course, I have to wake up at 6:30 in the morning. That's the only change," Nadal said. "That's all."
The two-handed backhand is Krajinovic’s most stable shot and he hit it with depth crosscourt to Nadal’s lefty forehand, but the Serbian slapped a forehand into net surrendering serve in the second game.
Credit Krajinovic, who knocked off Mikhail Kukushkin, David Goffin and Daniil Medvedev, for elevating his play. The Serbian slammed a series of crosscourt backhands then drew a floated backhand to break back in the fifth game.
Of course a break isn’t really a break until you hold.
Nadal is one of the fastest lateral movers the sport has seen and today the two-time Indian Wells doubles champion showed fluid forward closing speed and anticipation reading a pass and stabbing a volley down the line. That sequence helped him break back for 4-2.
The danger of directing traffic to the Spaniard’s hellacious topspin forehand is you play an already dangerous shot right into a groove. Stepping into the court, Nadal abruptly altered the crosscourt pattern bending a banana forehand down the line confirming for 5-2 with an inspired and indefensible bolt.
Rocketing his second ace, Nadal put a punctuation point on the 38-minute opener in which he served just 43 percent, dropped serve for the first time all tournament but dig in to win 75 percent (12 of 16) second-serve points and swat some superb running strikes.
A crackling diagonal forehand earned Nadal the break in the third game of second set and he quickly consolidated for 3-1.
The qualifier went down swinging. Krajinovic cranked an ace holding for 4-5 then nullified Nadal’s serve-and-volley with a slick forehand flick.
Answering that clever combination, Nadal leaned low bumping a backhand pass he punctuated with a leaping fist pump to celebrate double match point.
On his second match point, Nadal fired a final forehand closing in one hour, 26 minutes.