Rafael Nadal staged a dramatic comeback within a comeback to set up a hugely anticipated reunion with Roger Federer on his return to hard court action at the highest level.
The greatest rivalry of modern times will be restoked when plays the Swiss master in the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, meeting him for the 29th time in his career. It comes courtesy of an often breathtaking revival that saw him bring the desert crowd to its feet with a 4-6 6-4 7-5 victory over Ernests Gulbis.
The last time the two met was at this tournament twelve months ago, and in the intervening time Nadal has spent more than seven months sidelined with knee problems that had many fearing for his career.
Many of those questions have been answered with his form going back a month now, first in lower tier clay court events in South America and now back at Masters level. Across the last three tournaments he has amassed an eleven match winning streak.
'I made a some important mistakes and I had to suffer a lot to win this match,' said an ecstatic Nadal, who celebrated at the end almost like he was back winning a Grand Slam. 'To do this coming back on hard courts is fantastic after the last seven months.'
His ranking has also suffered, going down to No 5, and that is the reason why he is meeting Federer as early as the quarter finals, something that has not happened so early in nine years, their very first meeting of a series which the Spaniard leads 18-10.
The gifted Latvian Gulbis, who has put his notorious hard living habits behind him, is the most improved player of the year and duly gave Nadal a real test. But the eleven-times Grand Slam winner has always enjoyed this event and the way the ball flies through the dry air and kicks high off the court suits his style.
He flirted with defeat at 4-5 in the deciding set and came within two points of going out but held on and then broke his opponent for 6-5. There were some nerves serving the match out, a double fault showing his relative lack of matches, but he finally drove one mighty forehand deep to secure the win and jumped high in the air in delight.
This will probably be his sole hard court event before concentrating on the European clay, while Federer is taking a two month break from next week onwards, so it is a big match for both in the immediate context, with neither wishing to depart early with a psychological advantage ceded to the other.
If Federer loses he could be deposed from the world No 2 spot by Andy Murray, and he also needed to fight hard to make the last eight, overcoming his close friend and compatriot Stanislas Wawrinka with a similar scoreline 6-3 6-7 7-5.
The 31 year-old Swiss, who has been contending with a nagging back tweak this week, is excited to be rekindling the memories of so many great battles against Nadal, especially at a time when all the talk is about the growing Murray-Djokovic rivalry.
'Obviously playing Rafa, it's a classic. We have played, you know, so many times,' he said. 'We know each other really well on and off the court. We know what to expect, both of us. I mean, we are both a bit suspect going into this, I guess, so it's an interesting match-up, especially this early in the tournament.
'It's not like a first round, but in the past this match used to be a final, now it's a quarter-final, so obviously it's a bit of bad luck of the draw for both of us.
'At the same time, it's very exciting always playing each other, doesn’t matter what stage.'
Source:http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/tennis/article-2293088/Rafael-Nadal-play-Roger-Federer-Indian-Wells.html
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