Fifth seed Rafael Nadal received a rousing welcome on Friday at the Miami Open presented by Itau and lived up to his seeding on Stadium Court, moving past Dudi Sela 6-3, 6-4 to reach the third round.
The Spaniard saved both break points he faced and required just a single break of serve in each set to advance in one hour and 21 minutes. Nadal continues his dominance against Sela, boosting his FedEx ATP Head2Head record against the Israeli player to 2-0 and dropping just 13 games in the five sets they’ve played.
“It was difficult to find the right feelings this afternoon, but it’s these kind of days where you have to just try to win. That's what I did and I am very happy with that,” said Nadal. “This tournament is a tough tournament and anything can happen. I think I had a good week of practice, so I need to play good in the competition now to try and have success.”
Nadal is eager to clinch his first title in Miami after finishing runner-up on four occasions (2005, 2008, 2011, 2014). He’ll play the 1000th match of his career on Sunday against 26th seed Philipp Kohlschreiber, a winner earlier in the day over #NextGenATP American Taylor Fritz. Although Nadal leads his FedEx ATP Head2Head against Kohlschreiber 13-1, the German has taken a set in six of their seven hard-court meetings.
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Federico Delbonis caused one of the biggest upsets of the day in rallying to defeat 15th seed Pablo Carreno Busta 1-6, 7-5, 6-2. The Argentine was down a set and 1-3 before beginning his astonishing comeback to claim victory in one hour and 44 minutes.
Benoit Paire got on a hot streak with his forehand to defeat 21st seed Pablo Cuevas 7-5, 6-0. The Frenchman missed a chance to serve out the opening set at 5-4, but regrouped by winning the next eight games to take the match. Paire improves his FedEx ATP Head2Head against Cuevas to 3-0 and has yet to drop a set to him. He'll either play fellow Frenchman and 11th seed Lucas Pouille or Donald Young in the round of 32.