“Fantastic,” he said, smiling broadly.
The top three players in the men s bracket advanced Thursday. Djokovic beat qualifier Radek Stepanek 6-3, 6-3 in a ragged match, improving to 31-0 on hard courts this year and 55-1 overall. Federer knocked off James Blake 6-4, 6-1 in the evening.
Nobody had a day quite like the second-seeded Nadal, who arrived for the Cincinnati-area tournament hoping to get a lot of time on court this week. He missed nearly a month after hurting his left foot at Wimbledon, where he reached the finals and lost to Novak Djokovic.
He got his wish, all at once.
Playing on a sunny, mid-80s afternoon, Nadal blew four match points before finally ending the match. It was only the second best-of-three matches in Nadal s career that featured three tiebreakers.
“I would like to have one hour less than I have, but it s a positive one,” said Nadal, now 12-0 against Verdasco.
After taking a few questions, Nadal said politely, “I have to go to rest.”
Nadal s next match will be against seventh-seeded Mardy Fish, who beat Richard Gasquet 7-5, 7-5 with far less effort.
“If you want to play someone like Rafa, you hope that he plays a match that s four hours long before you play him,” Fish said. “I mean, that s as physical as it gets. It s hot out there, so I m sure he ll be pretty tired.”
Djokovic has played a lot of matches lately, and it showed in his performance on Thursday. He pumped his fist to get the crowd involved near the end.
“It s been very slow, kind of an ugly match to play and watch, so I think we really needed to engage the crowd at the end,” Djokovic said. “I ve played so many matches, and they ve caught up to me. It s OK.
“There are days like this when you don t feel like playing, but I hate losing. That s what makes me motivated on the court.”
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