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By Erik Gudris | Saturday, March 8, 2014

 
Nadal

Many at Indian Wells breathed a sigh of relief after defending champion Rafael Nadal overcame a slow start plus a determined opponent on Saturday night.

Photo Credit: AP

Even after Rafael Nadal overcame a slow start at the BNP Paribas Open, nothing was certain for the defending champion in his second round match Saturday night.

That was due to the determined and free-flowing performance of veteran Radek Stepanek who looked poised to pull off the massive upset much to the dismay of the packed Stadium 1 crowd.

Stepanek, who had never beaten Nadal in six previous meetings, came out sharp against the World No. 1. Jumping out to a quick 3-0 lead, Stepanek extended his advantage as Nadal struggled to find any rhythm. An edgy-looking Nadal couldn't convert on four break points in the opening set.

Stepanek himself would break Nadal late to eventually close it out 6-2.

With Stepanek firing off return winners at will early in the second set, Nadal tried to get himself fired up.

Finally, Nadal got his internal flame sparked with a massive forehand winner to get to deuce at 2-all. Nadal would secure his first break to go ahead 3-2. Nadal, with a somewhat mistimed smash winner, would eventually wrap up the second set 6-4.

Stepanek upped his own game midway through the final set. With aggressive returning, Stepanek would hold 0-40 on Nadal's serve.

Nadal saved the first two against him and then ended an extended rally at 30-40 with a drop shot followed by a backhand pass winner. Nadal would go on to hold for 3-all.

At 5-all, Nadal would test Stepanek who again favored moving forward to knock off volley winners. Setting up a break point, Nadal forced Stepanek to overcook a forehand. With that, Nadal soon served for the match up 6-5. Stepanek would threaten Nadal one last time by getting to 30-all.

But Nadal found several big serves to close out the 2-6, 6-4, 7-5 victory. Nadal hit 21 winners and 22 unforced errors in the match while maintaining a solid 83% first serve points won percentage.

Next up for Nadal is Alexandr Dolgopolov that will be a rematch of the recent Rio final that Nadal won last month.

 

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