French Open 2018: Nadal into quarterfinal, notches 900th tour level wins

Rafael Nadal “The King of Clay” qualified for the quarterfinal of the French Open 2018 after beating unknown Maximilian Marterer in the fourth round match yesterday. He defeated his opponent in straight sets 6-3 6-2 7-6(4). Though Rafa started with bit nervous after broken in the first game, gradually he upped the ante and settled. With that, he now conquered 37 straight Roland Garros sets, only behind Bjorn Borg’s record of 41 sets. He also reached his 900^th win of the tour and in the fifth place in open-era all-time tour level winners list. He compiles a healthy 82.79% win throughout his career.

Nadal had a stiff competition in the third set where he was broken and was trailing 3-1, but like as many times he did before, he found his mojo and broke Marterer’s serve again and forced the tie-breaker where he won 7-4.

For Argentina, two players from the country qualified for the quarterfinal after 13 years, where Juan Martin Delpotro and Diego Schwartzman completed victory in the fourth round in contrasting style. Two big serving men Delpotro and John Isner were on the court for the place in the quarterfinal but it went in favor of Delpotro who defeated his opponent in straight sets 6-4 6-4 6-4. He broke Isner’s serve once in each set and it was enough for him to have a straight sets victory.

In other fourth-round matches, Diego Schwartzman fought back from two sets down to beat South African Kevin Anderson 1-6 2-6 7-5 7-6(0) 6-2. It was a great entertaining match eventually went in favor of Argentine, next he faces Rafael Nadal in the quarterfinal match.

Croatian Marin Cilic beat Fabio Fognini of Italy in tough 5 setters with 6-4 6-1 3-6 6-7(4) 6-3 scoreline. It was a ferocious fightback from Italia, but it wasn’t enough to hold the Croatian where he won the fifth set. Next Marin Cilic will face Juan Martin Del Potro for a place in the semi-final.

Much awaited Serena Willams – Maria Sharapova match didn’t happen and Maria had a walkover since Serena pulled out of the tournament due to injury. In other fourth-round matches, World No 1 Simona Halep beat E.Mertens 6-2 6-1 and World No 2 Caroline Wozniacki had shock straight-sets defeat to World No 14 D.Kasatkina.  Former World No 1 Angelique Kerber completed a straight-sets victory over 7^th seed G.Garcia with 6-2 6-3.

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