Tennis: Rafael Nadal Defeats Tommy Haas
January 25th 2009 02:11
Spain's Rafael Nadal showed just why he is the world number one by demolishing German Tommy Haas 6-4 6-2 6-2 in the third round of the Australian Open.
Haas played some magnificent tennis at times, however Nadal was able to take command at will, with the power of his groundstrokes constantly stranding his opponent either at the baseline or the net.
Nadal conceded later that he had never played better at the Australian Open.
"I think I played my best match in Australia tonight," he said.
"I'm very happy with the level of my performance."
Haas served first against the Spaniard then shocked the large crowd when he broke Nadal to take a 2-0 lead.
But the top seed broke back immediately and then again two games later and held on to take a high quality first set in 51 minutes.
Both men were playing some superb tennis but Nadal always seemed to have the edge over the German world number 84.
He broke Haas in the fifth and seventh games and took a firm grip on the match when he won the second set in 43 minutes.
Haas opened the third with a comfortable service game but Nadal struck again to break the next one and the writing was on the wall.
He raced through the set to take the match in a touch over two hours, setting up a fourth round clash with Chilean 13th seed Fernando Gonzalez who beat Frenchman Richard Gasquet in a five set, four-hour epic.
Agence France-Presse
Haas played some magnificent tennis at times, however Nadal was able to take command at will, with the power of his groundstrokes constantly stranding his opponent either at the baseline or the net.
Nadal conceded later that he had never played better at the Australian Open.
"I think I played my best match in Australia tonight," he said.
"I'm very happy with the level of my performance."
Rafael Nadal
Haas served first against the Spaniard then shocked the large crowd when he broke Nadal to take a 2-0 lead.
But the top seed broke back immediately and then again two games later and held on to take a high quality first set in 51 minutes.
Both men were playing some superb tennis but Nadal always seemed to have the edge over the German world number 84.
He broke Haas in the fifth and seventh games and took a firm grip on the match when he won the second set in 43 minutes.
Haas opened the third with a comfortable service game but Nadal struck again to break the next one and the writing was on the wall.
He raced through the set to take the match in a touch over two hours, setting up a fourth round clash with Chilean 13th seed Fernando Gonzalez who beat Frenchman Richard Gasquet in a five set, four-hour epic.
Agence France-Presse
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