Rafael Nadal has defeated Ryan Harrison of USA in the second round of the BNP Paribas Open. Nadal won the match in the straight sets by 7-6(3), 6-2.

It took Nadal 94 minutes to make his way into the third round. His next opponent will be Leonardo Mayer of Argentina.

After the match, Nadal said, “Ryan is a good, young player and he made me work quite hard in the first set.”
“I am still not at my best. I still need a lot of improvement in my movement on the court. I think I was a bit slow in the opening set.”

“I am glad that I am in the next round. Every win is vital for me at this point of time as that provides me the opportunity to play in another match.”

Nadal made a tremendous start in the first set. The first three games went with the serve. A serve break in the fourth game gave Nadal a lead of 3-1. He held his serve in the next game to increase his lead to 4-1. It was about now that I wished I had taken up the Unibet bonus on offer and stuck a bet on a straight set win for Nadal.

However, Harrison didn’t let the Spaniard run away with the set. He broke Nadal’s serve in the 7th game before holding his serve in the 8th game to level the scores.

Neither of the two players dropped his serve in the next four games which took the set into the tie breaker.
Nadal played quite aggressively in the tie breaker and won it in quick time to seal the set.

In the second set, Nadal just flattened his American opponent with his glorious groundstrokes. He won 5 out of the first 6 games with serve breaks in the 3rd and the 5th game.

Harrison held his serve in the 7th game to make the score 2-5, but, that was not enough to keep his hopes alive of winning the match. He needed a serve break in the next game to extend the match, but, that didn’t happen. A serve hold in the next game secured Nadal’s win.