Spaniard world number two Rafael Nadal cruised to the quarter-finals of the 2019 Indian Wells Masters with a straight-set win over Filip Krajinovic on Wednesday.
Nadal, who had come into the tournament on the back of two starkly contrasting competition results, having made the final at the Australian Open but getting knocked out early from Acapulco Open by Nick Kyrgios, wasted no time in registering a 6-3, 6-4 win over his Serbian opponent.
It has been a rather smooth run for Nadal so far in the tournament, having earlier crushed Jared Donaldson 6-1, 6-1 in the second round and breezed past the 25th seeded Diego Schwartzman in the third round.
Krajinovic, himself a qualifier in the competition, hadn’t dropped a set coming into this match with wins over Mikhail Kukushkin, David Goffin and Daniil Medvedev making him potentially a tough opponent for the Spaniard.
However, Nadal, who was himself broken once in the first set, did not waste too much time and ensured he would make quick work of his opponent. Krajinovic was broken early in the opening set and while he broke right back in the fifth game, Nadal added two games in a row to make it 5-2. He later served out the set at 5-3.
The Serb saved a match-point on Nadal’s serve in the second set but the world number two completed the formalities and moved into the last-eight. He will now face the winner of the match between John Isner and Karen Khachanov.
This is the 11th time that Nadal has entered the Indian Wells Masters quarter-finals, and for the first time since 2016.
In another fourth round encounter, 19-year-old Miomir Kecmanovic looked to have surprised many by reaching his maiden Masters 1000 Series quarter-final by beating Yoshihito Nishioka. Kecmanovic won the first set 6-4 before Nishioka decided to retire from the match because of an injury.
In a later match of the day, Roger Federer will take on Kyle Edmund for a place in the quarter-finals.
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