Nadal rides his luck
Nadal rides his luck 
From correspondents in Dubai
Former Australian Captain March 01, 2007
ROGER Federer and Rafael Nadal came closer to their first meeting in more than three months, reaching the quarter-finals of the Dubai Open today (AEDT).
But while top seed Federer cruised through 7-5 6-3 over Italy’s Daniele Bracchiali, title holder Nadal needed all his fight, and a a little luck, to survive 6-2 3-6 7-6 (7-2) against Russia’s Igor Andreev.
This was a startling
match in which Nadal was given a time warning for toweling too long, a spectator collapsed when he was serving at 4-4 in the final set, delaying play for five minutes, and twice, when a line judge called the ball out giving the Spaniard match point, Andreev made successful Hawkeye challenges to get the rally replayed.
Had Nadal been able to capitalise when he had Andreev at 0-40 on the Russian’s serve at 3-3 in the second set, much may have been different.
Instead, Nadal served a double fault at 30-40 in the next game to go 5-3 down and land himself in all sorts of trouble, which worsened when he went a break down at the start of the final set.
Eventually his defensive containing got him through - even though he repeatedly tried to attack.
“I tried to play further up the court,” said Nadal. “But it was not easy.”
Federer’s progress also contained remarkable moments, including an 11-deuce fourth game in the second set which lasted almost 20 minutes before Bracciali held serve, and a between-the-legs Federer shot, from ell behind the baseline, which hurtled for a winning pass.
It was such a stunning blow that Bracciali jokingly went down on one knee in front of Federer as the world No.1 walked to his chair at the end of the game. Federer, not normally prone to show emotion, could not help chuckling at what he had done as the crowd cheered.
“I did like it,” he admitted. “It was a shot which I have not hit for a long time, and the last time I did it for a winner was in the Davis Cup against Sjeng Schalken (February 2003).
“It was definitely one of my best shots. It was from such a long way back. You do it a lot in practice, but not very often in matches, and the last time I tried it was against Marat Safin on match point in Australia (January 2005) and I missed, so I didn’t think I’d do that again.”
Federer now plays Novak Djokovic, whom he beat in straight sets in the Australian Open.
Nadal may be relieved to find himself playing Mikhail Youzhny and not Tomas Berdych, the sixth-seeded Czech who has beaten him in their three hardcourt meetings, although the Russian also defeated him on this surface at the US Open in September.
Youzhny defeated Berdych 7-6 (8-6) 6-3.
Earlier, Russia’s Nikolay Davydenko who had struggled to get past Morocco wildcard Younes El Ayanoui yesterday, was beaten 4-6 6-2 6-4 by Belgium’s world No.34 Olivier Rochus.
Agence France-Presse