Madrid (AFP)
Rafael Nadal quietly qualified for the quarter-finals of the Masters 1000 in Madrid at the expense of Australian Alexei Popyrin (76th) in straight sets 6-3, 6-3 on Thursday.
In the quarter-finals, the Spaniard thirteen times winner of Roland Garros between 2005 and 2020 will face either the German Alexander Zverev (N.7) or the Briton Daniel Evans (26th), opposed in the evening.
Since his loss in the quarter-finals at the Masters 1000 in Monte-Carlo, against Russian puncher Andrey Rublev, Nadal is now on a series of seven consecutive victories, started in Barcelona, where he won his first trophy of the season. ten days.
Faced with Popyrin, who tried a lot but also missed a lot (20 winning shots and as many unforced errors), "Rafa" was able to dismiss five of the six break points he had to face to win in 1h19 min.
"He was hitting on all the balls, there were hardly any intermediate balls and the court was very fast," described the world No.2.
"With the heat it's very dry, it was actually slippery. And he has a great serve, from the baseline, he was making mistakes, but he was also very successful. In these conditions, I made a match very correct. "
"I feel more and more confident with every game, there are things I can do better, but I'm not complaining about my game today (Thursday)," he continued.
For his entry into the running the day before, the Mallorcan had left only three games to the Spanish hope Carlos Alcaraz (6-1, 6-2).
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