Seeded Rafael Nadal toils past Jiri Vesely to reach Hamburg Open quarterfinals

Rafael Nadal eased into the Hamburg Open quarter-finals on Thursday (Jul 30) with a 6-4, 7-6 (7/2) win over Jiri Vesely of the Czech Republic as the Spaniard continues to try and resuscitate his flagging season.

The Spaniard saw his first-serve velocity drop into the 80s at times, and he struggled to win points on serve, particularly in the second set.

The former world number one has fallen to 10th in the rankings following injury and poor form.

The fourth seed quickly put the disappointment of losing the opening set behind him as he won eight games in a row to level the match and take a 4-0 lead in the final set.

In the all-Spanish match, Nadal appeared to have trouble adjusting to clay and finding his timing.

He served another double fault to drop the game, but Vesely could not take advantage and Nadal cruised through the tiebreaker, winning the match when Vesely netted a backhand. The momentum continued on to the third with Nadal taking the match after nearly two hours of play.

Nadal has had a tough season so far losing in the quarterfinals of the Australian Open and failing to defend his French Open crown. For my mentality it was important to finish a match better than how I started.

The match was played under the court’s canvas cover because of rain.

Andreas Seppi completed a good day for the seeds in Hamburg as he survived an early scare to beat wildcard Florian Mayer 4-6 6-2 6-3.

However, the 14-time Grand Slam champion came back to earn a gritty 6-4 7-6(2) victory.

There were straight-sets wins for Stephane Robert of France against Brazilian Joao Souza, and Turkey’s Marsel Ilhan against Russian Andrey Kuznetsov.