Nadal battles past Berankis in Melbourne

The Australian Summer continues to be a solid thing for Rafael Nadal who showed some good tennis once more by defeating Berankins. It was a rather straightforward match for Nadal who established himself as the better player. Nadal attacked Berankins with his forehand and had great success early on in the match. The first set was decided early as Nadal took the lead 3-1.

He then continued playing well before closing out the set with 6-2 finishing it off on Berankis's serve. The 2nd set featured a much stronger display from Berankis who did not go away that easily. Nadal once again took an early 2-0 lead but the Lithuanian player came back to make it 2-2. Nadal then took a 4-2 lead and a 5-2 lead but when serving for the match at 5-3 he got broken.

Berankis then won his service game to make it 5-5 after which Nadal finally was able to close it out with 7-5. The 2nd set was very messy by Nadal as he struggled to hit his first serve consistently. That opened a lot of 2nd service points for Berankis who was quite aggressive. Nadal won only 5/15 of those points and did not save either break point which was troublesome.

In the ned it was enough to keep it in two for Nadal who is building slowly form and stamina for the Australian Open. A good test for the Spaniard.