Nadal struggles but wins again at French Open
Rafael Nadal was made to struggle once again at the French Open on Thursday before defeating fellow Spaniard Pablo Andujar 7-5, 6-3, 7-6 (7/4) in a hard-fought second round tie.
The five-times former winner, defending champion and top seed was taken all the way by giant American John Isner in a sensational first round match on Tuesday before winning in five sets.
And against the 48-ranked Andujar, Nadal once again, at times, looked vulnerable, especially on his own serve which he has been working on improving over the last year.
After a quiet opening out on Court Suzanne Lenglen, Nadal broke serve in the sixth game only for that to be the first of four straight breaks of serve.
Nadal looked up perplexed at his uncle and coach Toni Nadal, but he grabbed a third break of serve in the 12th game to pocket the set 7-5.
Andujar, bidding to reach the third round of a Grand Slam event for the first time, again gave as good as he got in the second set, hitting back from 0-2 down to level at 2-2.
But Nadal went 5-3 up when Andujar flapped a weak forehand into the net and the world number one duly went two sets up, but not before having to save three further break points.
Andujar had his opponent scrambling with a series of angled forehand drives and it was far from being one-way traffic as so many of Nadal's matches had been in compiling a 39-1 win-loss record here.
Things got worse for the defending champion in the third set when Andujar broke his serve twice in a row to take a 5-1 lead.
The Valencia resident failed to serve out for the set at the first time of asking, letting slip four set points, and failed to convert three other chances in the following game on Nadal's serve.
With the physical and mental effort starting to take its toll on Andujar, Nadal broke again and held his own serve, after staving off two more set points, to get back level at 5-5.
The ensuing tie-break saw a last hurrah from a fading Andujar as he battled back from 5-1 down to get to 5-4, but he then fluffed an easy drop shot at the net with Nadal beaten and his chances of extending the match into a fourth set had gone.
Nadal will next go up against little-known Croatian qualifier Antonio Veic who defeated Russia's 28th seed Nikolay Davydenko in five sets.
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