Saturday, September 5, 2009

Nadal prevails over pesky Kiefer to reach third round

Rafael Nadal overcame a gritty performance by 32-year-old Nicolas Kiefer of Germany to score a 6-0 3-6 6-3 6-4 victory and advance to the third round of the U.S. Open on Friday.

Nadal looked on his way to an easy victory, using his huge groundstrokes to whitewash the 129th-ranked Kiefer in just 24 minutes in the opening set.

Kiefer, cheered on by the Arthur Ashe Stadium crowd, came back to win the second set and gave the third-seeded Spaniard a tough test the rest of the way.

Nadal registered single service breaks in the last two sets to subdue Kiefer in three hours and advance to a third-round match against fellow Spaniard and 32nd seed Nicolas Almagro.

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