Rafael Nadal defeated fellow Spaniard Albert Ramos in two sets (7-6 and 6-2), in a match that had been postponed due to rain, to advance to the quarterfinals of the Cincinnati Masters 1000 where he will now face Australian Nick Kyrgios.
With this victory Nadal, who has now won 22 sets in a row against Spanish players, is 4-0 in his career against Ramos.
The last time the two Spaniards had faced each other was this year at the Monte Carlo Masters with Nadal winning 6-1 and 6-3.
This time the first set was the toughest one for Nadal as both played held their serve until the tiebreak. At that moment, Nadal dominated Ramos and allowed him to score just one point.
It seemed that the story was going to repeat itself in the second set, but in the fourth game Nadal almost lost a game as he was down on the scoreboard. However, “Rafa” recovered to win five games in a row and take the second and final set 6-2.
Nick Kyrgios, number 23 in the world, reached the quarterfinals by defeating Croatian Ivo Karlovic in three sets (4-6, 7-6 and 6-3). It should be noted that the Australian’s match had also been postponed due to the bad weather affecting the Cincinnati area.
Roger Federer’s withdrawal from the tournament means Nadal will return to being world number one for the first time since July 2014, taking over from Andy Murray who is also injured.
Both Spanish players wore black ribbons to honor the victims of Thursday’s attacks in Catalonia, Spain, that left 14 dead and 100 injured.
In the women’s side Karolina Pliskova solidified her world number one ranking by beating Denmark’s Caroline Wozniacki (6-2 and 6-4) to advance to the semifinals of the tournament. The Czech had reached the quarterfinals by beating Italy’s Camila Giorgi in the round of 16 in three sets (6-3, 4-6 and 6-0).
She will face Spain’s Garbine Muguruza, who defeated Russian Svetlana Kutznesova in three sets (6-2, 5-7 and 7-5) in the quarterfinals.
