No sweat as Nadal roars into last eight
Rafa Nadal
pummelled Croatia’s Marin Cilic into submission with a brutish 6-2 6-4
6-3 victory to reach the Australian Open quarter-finals on Monday.
Nadal’s win under
the Melbourne floodlights kept alive the world number one’s bid to
become only the third man, and first since 1969, to hold all four grand
slam titles at once.
It also wiped away
any lingering concerns about the flu bug that took the edge off his
game in the first week and caused him to pour with sweat against
Bernard Tomic on Saturday.
“Before the match I
was scared, seriously,” Nadal told reporters after setting up a clash
with fellow Spaniard David Ferrer, the seventh seed.
“Scared in a good way. But I played my best match here by far.
“I didn’t sweat as much today,” added Nadal, who shed two and a half kilos in his previous win over Australian teenager Tomic.
“Before I was
sweating like crazy and it was a night session. Tonight I was able to
play with high intensity, more inside the court and more aggressive.”
Nadal looked far
sharper against Cilic, hustling to chase down balls and rifle them back
past the Croat, before striking his trademark gunslinger’s pose with a
bellowing cry of “Vamos!”
The first set was
over in a blur for 15th seed Cilic, a sitting duck for Nadal as he
attempted to slug it out toe-to-toe, only to get passed time and again
by the 2009 champion.
Nadal took the second by forcing Cilic into another wild forehand as conditions grew ever chillier on a packed Rod Laver Arena.
He bulldozed over
the finish line when his shattered opponent dumped a second serve
halfway up the net after two hours and 31 minutes.
“Tonight was pretty
cold and I didn’t push him too much,” said a rueful Cilic, who stunned
Nadal in their only previous meeting in Beijing in 2009.
“You couldn’t see how much he has in the tank.”
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