Nadal rolls to 43rd GS quarterfinal

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MELBOURNE, Australia, Feb 15, (AP): So much for the thought that Rafael Nadal’s bad back might hold him back at the Australian Open as he tries to break a tie with Roger Federer for the most Grand Slam singles titles won by a man. Win three more matches this week, and Nadal will be the only one with 21.

So far, he hasn’t dropped a set through four matches, moving into his 13th quarterfinal at Melbourne Park and 43rd in all at major championships with a 6-3, 6-4, 6-2 victory over No. 16 seed Fabio Fognini on Monday. Take it further, to the start of last year’s French Open, and Nadal has won his past 33 Grand Slam sets in a row. He called the first set against Fognini “without a doubt” his “best level in the tournament.”

Why was that? Well, the 34-yearold Nadal offered a rather simple explanation: He came into the match finally having been able to practice for two days in a row, after having his work limited by the back pain that surfaced about three weeks ago. Not that everything is perfect, mind you. “My physical condition needs to keep improving,” Nadal said. “But I think this match helps, too. I was not able to practice the proper way for the last 19 days, but yesterday I started again to increase the amount of work (in) practice. And today has been a positive victory with some long points, so that helps for the next match.”

That’ll be on Wednesday against No. 5 seed Stefanos Tsitsipas, who advanced when his fourth-round opponent, No. 9 Matteo Berrettini, pulled out of the tournament because of abdominal injury he picked up in his prior win. Before Berrettini’s withdrawal officially was announced, Nadal accidentally broke the news by telling the media he’d be facing Tsitsipas. Nadal is 6-1 against the 22-year-old Tsitsipas, including a 6-2, 6-4, 6-0 win for the Spaniard in the 2019 Australian Open semifinals. The other quarterfinal on their half of the draw will be No. 4 Daniil Medvedev, the 2019 U.S. Open runner- up, against No. 7 Andrey Rublev in an all-Russian matchup between friends since childhood.

A third Russian man, 114th-ranked qualifier Aslan Karatsev, already had advanced, giving the country a trio of quarterfinalists at a major tournament for the only time in the professional era. After Jessica Pegula earned her first trip to a Grand Slam quarterfinal, the daughter of the owners of Buffalo’s NFL and NHL franchises scribbled on the screen of an Australian Open courtside TV camera: “hi mom, hi dad, see you next rd Jen B.” In addition to a shoutout to her parents, that was a message for Jennifer Brady, a good pal of Pegula’s whose fourth-round match was up next in Rod Laver Arena on Monday. The 61st-ranked Pegula beat No. 5 seed Elina Svitolina of Ukraine 6-4, 3-6, 6-3, before the 22nd-seeded Brady, a Pennsylvanian who played college tennis at UCLA, had a 6-1, 7-5 victory over No. 28 Donna Vekic of Croatia.

Brady was one of the 72 players who had to go through a hard lockdown – two weeks stuck in a hotel room, not allowed to leave for any reason – after flying to Australia in January because someone on their flight tested positive for COVID-19 upon arrival. Brady and Pegula gave the U.S. three women’s quarterfinalists at Melbourne Park, joining 23-time Grand Slam champion Serena Williams, who advanced a day earlier.

Top-ranked Ash Barty ensured a fourth American didn’t make it to the last eight, beating unseeded Shelby Rogers 6-3, 6-4 to set up a quarterfinal match against No. 25 Karolina Muchova. She is on quite a breakthrough run. Pegula has won four matches at Melbourne Park over the past week – including victories over two-time Australian Open champion Victoria Azarenka and 2011 U.S. Open champion Sam Stosur – after entering the hard-court tournament with a total of three wins at majors for her career. Also significant for Pegula, who works with Venus Williams’ former coach, David Witt: She came into the day with an 0-6 record against Top 10 women.

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