Indian Wells: Rafael Nadal to meet Britain's Dan Evans after both win in second round
- Published
Rafael Nadal has won all 16 of his matches in 2022, winning the Melbourne Summer Set, Australian Open and Mexican Open
Rafael Nadal will meet Britain's Dan Evans in the third round at Indian Wells after coming back to claim his 16th straight win on Saturday.
USA's Sebastian Korda led 5-2 in the third set and had two chances to serve for the match but Spaniard Nadal recovered to win 6-2 1-6 7-6 (7-3).
World number one Daniil Medvedev beat Czech qualifier Tomas Machac 6-3 6-2.
And defending champion Cameron Norrie also won, the British number one beating Spain's Pedro Martinez 6-3 6-3.
British number two Evans beat Argentina's Federico Coria 6-2 6-0, while the highest women's seed, Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus, suffered a 2-6 6-3 6-3 loss to Italy's Jasmine Paolini.
Nadal has now won all 16 games in 2022, fighting back from two sets down to beat Medvedev in the Australian Open final and claim a record 21st Grand Slam title before beating Norrie to win the Mexican Open.
The 35-year-old charged into a 4-0 lead against Korda en route to taking the first set, although the world number 38 regrouped to win the second, in which he broke Nadal twice.
Korda, 21, broke Nadal twice again in the third to move to the brink of the biggest win of his career but Nadal repeated his Australian Open heroics to force a tie-breaker, in which he also came back from 5-2 down.
The world number four will now have his third meeting with British number two Evans - and his first since 2019.
"It's why you play tennis, to get on a big court and have a go against a guy who's playing unbelievably this year and, at the minute, is the greatest of all time," Evans told Amazon Prime.
"It'd be great so there's no point worrying about it, just have fun."
Evans, the world number 29, won 10 straight games against Coria to clinch the first set and dominate the second.
Daniil Medvedev became world number one for the first time in February and needs to reach the quarter-finals to maintain that status
Medvedev also enjoyed a comfortable win in the California desert while playing for the first time since being told he can no longer compete under the Russian flag after his country's invasion of Ukraine.
It was also his first game since reaching the top of the world rankings for the first time and he was dominant after saving a break point in the first game, dropping just eight points on serve in the rest of the match.
Medvedev will face Gael Monfils of France on Monday as he aims to beat his previous best performance at Indian Wells, reaching the fourth round last October.
"It's always strange here, the conditions," Medvedev said. "You need a lot of time to get used to the conditions, and at the same time it's a great place to be.
"Everybody comes one week or one-week-and-a-half before the tournament because of both reasons. That's what I've done also and I feel great, so hopefully I can do better than the previous times."