Rafael Nadal cruises past Botic van de Zandschulp at Wimbledon

Rafael Nadal played another solid match to beat Botic van de Zandschulp 6-4 6-2 7-6(6) to secure the Wimbledon quarterfinal.

Nadal is finally playing some good tennis on grass after struggling in his opening few matches. The Spaniard looked quite strong against Sonego and also today taking down a tricky player. The opening set featured a solid start for both. Nadal was feeling out his opponent and waiting patiently for his chance. It came late in the set with Nadal winning it 6-4.

The Dutch player struggled a lot on his 2nd serve winning only 6 of 15 points. Nadal waited for him to miss it and then attack early in the rallies. The 2nd set was quite similar but in this set, both players struggled to serve well. For Botic it was a huge issue and he only won 3 of 12 points behind his second serve. That was a problem as Nadal easily cruised to a 6-2 finish.

Both improved their serving in the final set but Nadal was still the better player overall. He figured out his opponent and knew exactly what to do and when to do it. Nadal served for the match at 5-3 but dropped his serve giving Botic a chance. We went into the tiebreak and it was Nadal who proved slightly better 7-5.