Rafael Nadal battles past Karen Khachanov in Melbourne

Rafael Nadal is through to the 4th round of the Australian Open after outlasting a very engaged Karen Khachanov in Melbourne.

The Russian is a very consistent performer in grand slams and rarely loses in the early rounds. This time around his stay in Australia ends in the 3rd round after being unable to beat Nadal. There is no shame in losing to Nadal especially a very good Nadal that had to dig deep in order to produce an effort good enough to defeat Karen Khachanov.

The Russian started slowly and allowed Nadal to jump out to an early lead and after that, it was very hard to come back. Nadal kept piling on with his forehand and the Russian did not find a rhythm to counter it. The score was 6-3 and it became worse for Khachanov who played better in the 2nd set but also faced stronger opposition from Nadal.

The 2nd set lasted double the time compared to the first set but actually featured one less game as Nadal won it with 6-2. It was a hard-fought battle as Khachanvo was slowly starting to build up confidence albeit with a lack of consistency. He found it in the 3rd set and outplayed Nadal for the better of the 3rd set winning it 6-3.

The 4th set featured a strong start from Nadal who broke Khachanov with a brilliant backhand down the line out of an impossible situation. After that Khachanov's play completely fell apart as Nadal was flying around the court. Nadal finished it off with 6-1.