Rafa Nadal battled past Ivo Karlovic 7-5 6-7 (4-7) 7-6 (7-5) after two hours and 47 minutes to advance to the third round of the Shanghai Rolex Master in Shanghai. It was the third time in four head-to head matches in which Nadal survived the “King of Aces” in the tie-break of the third set
Nadal, finalist in Shanghai in 2009 to Nikolay Davydenko, dropped his serve in the first game of the opening set after he made a forehand error and Karlovic hit two forehands and a slice. Nadal earned two break back point chances in the fourth game but Karlovic saved them with his serve at deuce. The first set went on serve until Karlovic led 5-4. The Spanish star fought back by breaking back in the 10th game with three consecutive return winners and clinched the first set with 7-5 in 43 minutes after winning four consecutive games from 3-5.
Both players held their serve in the second set. Only in the ninth game Karlovic earned three consecutive break points but Nadal saved them to take the edge with 5-4. The second set went on serve until the tie-break. Nadal got the mini-break for 2-1 but Karlovic broke back before breaking at 5-3 en route to winning the breaker with 7-4 to force the set to the third set.
The third set followed the same pattern with neither player able to break serve until the decisive tie-break which went on serve until the 8th point. The match was decided when Karlovic made a costly double fault at 4-4. Nadal served out for the match and hit a passing shot on the match point to sneak a hard-fought third set tie-break with 7-5 and claim his 50th match of this season. Nadal took his fifth win in five head-to-head matches against Karlovic.
Nadal, who showed improving form in Beijing where he finished runner-up against Novak Djokovic, set up a third round match against Milos Raonic who battled past Roberto Bautista Agut 6-4 6-7 (3-7) 7-6 (7-5) after fending off a match point when he was down 4-5 30-40 in the third set to force the match to the tie-break. Bautista Agut rallied from 1-5 to draw level to 5-all but Raonic reeled off the next two points to take a thrilling win.
