After defeating Marcos Giron and Yannick Hanfmann, Rafael Nadal had the same face of Seed 23 Karen Khachanov in the fourth round of Australia expanded 2022. In the previous 7 meetings, the King of the Earth Plane was all the triumphal song. Until this 8th encounter, Khachanov still could not create a surprise.
Entering Set 1, Nadal has a very convenient start. The Spaniard has 3 chances to win the break and he has successfully used it. In the rest of the set, Rafa did not make any mistakes when successfully defending the gaming games, thereby winning 6-3.
Sang Set 2, Nadal continued to master the game and had more victory. In this set, he has twice won the break in game 1 and 5, which won 7 points ACE compared to 1 of Khachanov. Set 2 closed with a 6-2 victory in favor of the Spaniard.
In set 3, Nadal suddenly played down, creating opportunities for Khachanov to rise. The turning point of this set comes in game 4, when the Russian player excellently won the break. In the following games, the two players face lots of break point but cannot take advantage of success. Therefore, Nadal accepted to lose 3-6 in this set.
It seemed that victory in Set 3 would create a great motivation for Khachanov, but he could not win Nadal in Set 4. In this set, the King of the Platform was extremely focused and clearly showed his bravery. He won the Break in Game 4 and then ended the match with the White Game. The result of this set is 6-3.
In the end, Nadal defeated Khachanov 3-1 and officially put his name in the fourth round of Australia expanded this year. This is also the 8th time he has won against the Russian player. In the next round, Rafa's opponent was the winner of the Adrian Mannarino and Aslan Karatsev.
Match parameters
