Rafael Nadal of Spain shakes the sweat off his hair after defeating compatriot Marcel Granollers in Indian Wells, March 13, 2012.Reuters/Reuters
There's something about the atmosphere or the venue or maybe even just the heat at Indian Wells that brings out the best in Spain's Rafael Nadal. Nadal is, after all, 25 years old, and subject to all the aches and pains of advancing tennis age – sore shoulder, tendinitis in the knees. Temperatures of 28C can warm up those old bones like nothing else, as Nadal, the No. 2 seed here this year, showed again Tuesday.
The only player on the ATP Tour to reach the semi-finals of the BNP Parabas Open six years in a row, Nadal is cruising through the draw once again.
Nadal advanced to the fourth round by defeating fellow Spaniard Marcel Granollers, the No. 26 seed, 6-1, 6-4 in straight sets Tuesday afternoon – and it really was as one-sided as the score line indicated. Nadal broke Granollers twice in the opening set and then served it out at love.
It took just 29 minutes.
Granollers provided a stiffer overall challenge in the second set, but got behind right away, losing serve in the first game. Though Granollers had a couple of break points in the sixth game, Nadal fought them all off, and in the end, won the match in 1 hour 25 minutes – punctuating the win with a definitive ace down the middle on match point.
Nadal, who lost only four games in his opening-round match against Argentina's Leonardo Mayer (after receiving a first-round bye), took a lengthy break after playing a classic match of 5 hours 53 minutes in the final of the Australian Open against Serbia's Novak Djokovic.
For anyone wondering how Nadal would respond, the answer so far is – pretty darn well.
"I think I played a great first set – aggressive in my forehand," Nadal said.
"In the second set, I had [a few more problems] I need to play like I did in the first set if I want to keep going."
Nadal is also alive in the doubles competition – he and compatriot Marc Lopez won in straight sets the night before over Alex Dolgopolov and Xavier Malisse, who happened to be the defending champions. Nadal's match packed the secondary court – the featured match, with Caroline Wozniacki in the spotlight, played in front of a half-to-three-quarters-empty house.
It says something about the lasting power and charm of Nadal that he remains one of the most popular players on the tour, and a big draw here.
"This is a tournament that I love," Nadal explained. "I enjoy a lot playing this tournament. Always in my career had good success here. I played very good matches. Is nice to be back playing at the very good level, in my opinion."
Nadal's match was the final one during Tuesday's day session.
Canada's Milos Raonic was scheduled to play Switzerland's Roger Federer in the first match of night session, which was scheduled to start about an hour after Nadal got off the court.
Raonic was meeting Federer, the world No. 3 and the 16-time Grand Slam champion, for the first time in his career. They are all on the bottom half of a draw that is opening up nicely, after the No. 5 seed David Ferrer of Spain, a perennial Raonic nemesis, lost to Uzbekistan's Denis Istomin. The winner of the Raonic-Federer match will next play unseeded Brazilian Thomaz Bellucci, who received a walkover when Russia's Nikolay Davydenko withdrew because of a viral infection that's working its way through the field.
Nadal has flattened out a little that big swooping top-spin forehand that makes him look as though he's a candidate for Tommy John surgery whenever he rears back and swings. Age may be catching up to the winner of 10 Grand Slams and breaking down his body, but it hasn't diminished his fighting spirit, which is still as strong as ever.
Nadal received a time-count warning in Game 6 of the second set and it is a sensitive subject to him, but even that – and a bad call on the next point, in which an ace was called out – didn't rattle him.
Compared to 6 1/2 years ago, he looks far leaner than he once did. His game has evolved too. He works much harder at ending the points more quickly, shifting away from that clay-courter's mentality of playing endlessly until his opponent is ready to drop.
He can still do that when needed, but it was clear against Granollers that Nadal wanted to get off the court as quickly as possible.
Tactically, Nadal says he's taking a little off his serve these days in order to get it in more consistently, and set up an aggressive play on the first ball, preferably on the forehand.
Nadal explained in that charming English of his that he likes to get "the right percentage of first serves in, around 70 per cent, [which]give me the chance to start the point with an advantage. That's my game. If I start the point with an advantage, with my forehand, normally I have the control of the point."
And when he does that – as he did pretty consistently against Granollers – Nadal looks as if he could go along way in the desert.
Again. As always.