Rafael Nadal continued on the way to conquer its 21st Grand Slam title when confronted with Denis Shapovalov in the Australian quarter -finals expanding 2022. The Spaniard started to be impressive and overwhelming in the early game against Shapovalov – who had the first Australian quarter -finally expanded in his career.
The first two sets witnessed Nadal completely controlled the game. The first set, he soon broke Shapovalov's serve to take 3-1 lead, creating a premise to win with a score of 6-3. Nadal's next break helped him lead 4-3 in Set 2, from which to the 6-4 victory to have an advantage of 2-0.
The third set marks the rising area of ​​Shapovalov. Both players have the score in their serve until the 10th game. It was the time when the Canadian player had the first break to win 6-4, thereby shortening the score to 2-1.
In the fourth set, Nadal began to have a stomach problem and also had to stop the match for the doctors to take care of. The health is not good, causing the physical strength of the 35 -year -old player to quickly decrease. Taking advantage of this opportunity, Shapovalov soon won the break in the fourth game, resulting in a 6-3 victory and forced the match to enter Set 5.
After having to enter the dressing room after Set 4, Nadal regained the form at the most important time. Experience and bravery help Nadal play better than the opponent in most of the last set. An early break gives him an advantage of 3-0, from which to the 6-3 victory.
Shapovalov ended the match with 20 ACE and 5 double errors, while Nadal had 10 ACE and 11 double bugs. With the final victory of 3-2 after 5 sets, the 7th Nadal participated in the expanded Australian semi-finals.
