Nadal wins deciding tie-break to advance in Basel

I just tried to survive the second set and wait for my opportiunities.

“I believe that he’s not playing like he did in the past and this causes him much anxiety, because he would like to come back to play as usual, but I’m sure that he will come back to play well”, Ferrero added in the same article.

Hotdog shot by Rafael Nadal!

Rosol took charge from the very start leading the Spaniard 3-1 in the opening set.

Nadal almost paid the price for another erratic performance and was forced to grind out the win after being broken four times.

“I was only thinking about trying to find a way to win the next point”, Nadal said, adding that he has come back a lot of times in tough situations, but this year has been different.

Lukas Rosol played textbook match against Nadal for a few 67 minutes today in Basel, being 2 points away from easy victory on his own serve, but lost his focus completely and, in the end, he lost the whole match.

There has been no love lost between the players since Rosol stunned Nadal in the Wimbledon second round in 2012, with Nadal gaining revenge at the 2014 Wimbledon tournament. It’s important for me to have these kinds of comebacks.

He opens his bid for more home success on Tuesday when he faces Kazakh outsider Mikhail Kukushkin while compatriot and second seed Stan Wawrinka is also in the field and plays Croatian big-server Ivo Karlovic.

Earlier, French qualifier Adrian Mannarino, beat Viktor Troicki of Serbia, 4-6, 7-5, 7-6 (3), and Austria’s Dominic Thiem beat Dutchman Robin Haase 0-6, 7-6 (5), 7-5.

Donald Young of the United States will then take on Henri Laaksonen, the wild card, after Nadal has taken centre stage.