World number one tamed Georgian Nikoloz Basilashvili in four sets in the 8th finals of the US Open.
Rafael Nadal won this Sunday in four sets against a valiant Nikoloz Basilashvili (6-3, 6-3, 6-7, 6-4) and rallies the quarterfinals of the US Open where he will face the Austrian Dominic Thiem.
This eighth final appeared to be extremely unbalanced between world number one Rafael Nadal and Nikoloz Basilashvili, the 37th player in the world who made his first appearance at this level. Solid at the start of the match, the Georgian knew a hole in the air at 4-3 and found himself very quickly LED 6-3, 2-0. The Spaniard then quietly concluded to lead two sets to zero and seemed to be moving towards an easy qualification. However Nadal dropped a little in the third set as the Georgian became increasingly aggressive. At the end of a tight set and a decisive game of very high level, Basilashvili won (6-7, 6/8) and returned to two sets to one. The Georgian, however, had a logical back-up at the beginning of the fourth set and was breaking apart at the start. Despite a debreak at the beginning of the set, Basilashvili ended up bowing down (6-3, 6-3, 6-7 (6/8), 6-4) not without giving Nadal some cold sweat.
More than 3:00 on the court
After his victory over Khachanov, Nadal played a second match in four sets and once again spent more than 3 hours on the court. His opponent took his chance as soon as Nadal gave him the chance. This high-risk game explains its (very) many direct fouls (59) but is weighted by its very high number of winning moves (56). In front, Nadal made 30 winning moves for 19 straight faults. In the next round the world number one will face Dominic Thiem. He will need a much stronger performance if he wants to continue. Unable to conclude a game that he should have won much more easily, Nadal made the effort that he didn’t necessarily need and that could count towards the end of the tournament.