Rafael Nadal and Nick Kyrgios will be going head-to-head for the fourth time in their careers when they battle for the China Open title on Sunday.
Rafa is seeking to lift the trophy in the Chinese capital for the first time in 12 years. The 2005 champion also finished runner-up on two subsequent occasions, to Novak Djokovic in both 2013 and 2015.
Date: 8 October 2017
Match time: Rafa is third match on National Tennis Stadium. Not before 7.30 PM local time / 7.30 AM EDT – New York, Montreal / 12.30 PM BST – United Kingdom / 1.30 PM CEST – Spain, France, Germany, Italy / 10.30 PM AEDT – Melbourne. To convert to your local time, use this website.
Rafa:
I’m very happy to be in the final again.
Another chance tomorrow to compete in a big match. That’s important for me. That’s why we practise every day and try to improve.
Nick on playing Rafa:
He’s one of the greatest players of all time and we’ve played a couple of times, he’s beaten me and I’ve beaten him. Hopefully tomorrow’s going to be another good match.
Rafa and Nick have split four career meetings with the 22-year-old Australian scoring a 6-2, 7-5 triumph in their most recent encounter in Cincinnati.
| YEAR | EVENT | SURFACE | RND | WINNER | RESULT |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | ATP World Tour Masters 1000 Cincinnati OH, U.S.A. |
Outdoor Hard | QF | Nick Kyrgios |
62 75
|
| 2017 | ATP World Tour Masters 1000 Madrid Spain |
Outdoor Clay | R16 | Rafael Nadal |
63 61
|
| 2016 | ATP World Tour Masters 1000 Rome Italy |
Outdoor Clay | R16 | Rafael Nadal |
673 62 64
|
| 2014 | Wimbledon Great Britain |
Outdoor Grass | R16 | Nick Kyrgios |
765 57 765 63
|
Rafa is one of three men to win five titles this year, along with Roger Federer and Alexander Zverev.
GOOD LUCK & VAMOS RAFA!
Source: ATP World Tour
Great going Rafa. I know you will treasure this trophy as it comes twelve years after your 2005 tournament win.
RAFA ROCKED BEIJING
Well done Rafa – another trophy won in China!! Vamos por Shanghai! suerte
5-0 and Rafa with an amazing BH return winner.
4-0 now, Rafa breaks again from love-40!
Nick is still trying and playing very well, despite being frustrated, which only makes sense.
Now he has a taste of truly well-playing Rafa.
It’s rare to see him get dominated like this when he’s motivated and playing well. Even Fed can’t break him and had to rely on TBs to win a match.
Of course Murray is another story with his goat ROS. But Rafa’s return and ground game when he’s healthy and confident is another story.
… is another story as well. 🙂
Nervy Rafa DFed to give Nick a BP at 30all, making it a bit complicated with Nick playing very well.
He saved the game on 2nd GP though with sublime defence.
3-0 Rafa 2nd set
Rafa has BP and breaks again!!!
Kyrgios under immense pressure right on the get go. Rafa pressed him so hard in every game.
Now pls not let up and consolidate, Rafa. He’s still very much in this match.
2BPs early on in the opening game but Rafa brushed them off with that impressive clutchness again. Very much as expected :).
Rafa broke then consolidated firmly this. As expected, he really came in to play. Has BPs in Nick’s ever service game and simply not letting him play that freely like before.
Set point now.
5-2 40-30
A bit shame that Nick DFed twice in this game. But that happens when you’re feeling too much pressure.
Rafa took the 2nd set 6-2. Well done, Rafa. 🙂
Now he has the advantage of serving first in the 2nd set.
Up early to do my shopping in record time so i can get back and settle in for the final. Sending Rafa all positive thoughts. Should be an excellent match if both play their best.
Hi Susie. It’s so brutal now, this match. I have no doubt Rafa will be tired for Shanghai. 🙁
Hi rainier. Rafa is such a good athlete he will be fine. Esp with a bye in the 1st round in shanghai. Anyway i hope all is well with you and yours
Thank you, Susie. All is well with me and mine. Great to hear from you again and sorry for this late reply. Hope you and Raffy and yours are doing great as well. 🙂 😽
Rafa had to do some an event this afternoon for his sponsor so he only had a light practice, which is a good thing :). His body has been holding up quite impressively so far this year. I’m pretty amazed he is still going that strong, maybe even in his best form ever after the USO, at this age. It’s wonderful. But I couldn’t help worrying he might overplay again.
Hope to see you and Maria during some of his matches in Shanghai.
Nighty night. 🌛✨
Thank you, Susie. All is well with me and mine. Great to hear from you again and sorry for this late reply. Hope you and Raffy and yours are doing great as well. 🙂 😽
Rafa had to do some an event this afternoon for his sponsor so he only had a light practice, which is a good thing :). His body has been holding up quite impressively so far this year. I’m pretty amazed he is still going that strong, maybe even in his best form ever after the USO, at this age. It’s wonderful. But I couldn’t help worrying he might overplay again.
Hope to see you and Maria during some of his matches in Shanghai.
Nighty night. 🌛✨
All the best for tonight Rafa against Nick.
Love and prayers,
AlaineXXSydneyXXAustraliaXX
Rafa as you always say Play your bests
A focused Kyrgios is a dangerous Kyrgios! Just as we saw in his match against Zverev in the semi final, he will be up for the fight against Rafa. The match will be tough and tight, so Rafa can’t afford to let his intensity drop like it did in the second set against Dimitrov. He must serve extremely well, try to keep Kyrgios back, on the stretch and get into the net as much as possible. Kyrgios will do his usual showboating as he just can’t resist it, so Rafa must not be phased or distracted by any antics at the other end of the court.
You CAN do it and you WILL do it, Rafa!
Your comment was going okay until you said .” Kyrgios will do his usual showboating as he just can’t resist it, “…totally unnecessary.
Do what you do best.Enjoy your tennis.Blessings on you and yours.VAMOS RA FA.
It’s only a ATP500 but I think Rafa will want to make a statement here, playing in the final against the hotshot Nick.
They split the H2H 2-2 with each has wins on his favourite surface(s).
However, Nick has never played a confident, in-form Rafa on HC. In their Cincy encounter, Rafa played so subpar – a really bad match from him by his own admission.
Much has happened since then. Rafa won the USO and is currently playing at an extremely high level at Beijing after Pouille woke him up at the end of that 2nd set TB.
His confidence is growing with each match. Frankly, this draw is largely tougher for him than his USO draw, saved the Thorhand Del Potro. And it’s always tougher for him in best of 3 with no resting day between matches.
Plus, with the way he showed his clutchness in the 1st and 3rd set today against Dimitrov, I choose to believe Clutchdal will appear again tomorrow.
So all in all I think the circumstances are now largely different. The match is more on Rafa’s racquet than the wildly praised Nick, as truly talented as he is.
It will mostly come down to how Rafa serves and holds his nerve in the match. If he plays his best, he should beat Nick at his best. Tough if Nick serves and plays well. Fairly straighforward if he doesn’t.
He should serve well, avoid having any mental lapses like he did in the 2nd set today.
Go for his shots and after Nick’s 2nd serve. When Nick is motivated, he serves ridiculously well, putting a lot of 1st serve in and his 2nd serve is still bigger than many players’ 1st serve.
That said, Rafa’s 2nd serve win on HC this year is still better than Nick’s.
In fact, currently it’s the best on tour at 60.4%. Kyrgios is 8th in the leader board at 54.7%. So both are very tough to break with Nick having the edge due to his higher 1st serve win %.
However, Rafa is a MUCH better returner with a better and allrounder ground game. Serve well and he will break sooner or latter. Hold his nerve well and he will dominate in most rallies.
Must run Nick around and not feed him high balls that sit up right to his hitting zone. He made that costly mistakes in their Cincy match.
Give him a lot of dead balls with no pace; slice him to death; keep the ball low; flatten out his shots like he’s been playing when he’s feeling well.
Work the angles; go to the net a lot more.
All in all the Cincy final where Dimitrov played a master class in terms of tactics and defence with controlled aggressiveness should give him a lot of hints of how to negate that wild, crazily talented and certainly motivated Nick.
Agree with everything you said. Plus court position is so important too for Rafa.
Idea…why don’t you just go play the match for Nadal?
Hoping for a great match. I’m worried that Rafa will be gassed for Shanghai. So great match but please not a gruelling brawl.
Also, I’m a bit worried that it will be Rafa’s first night match. So far he has played all of his match in day time. Nick has already played one night match today against Zverev.
The temperature will be a bit cold at 15oC, super dense air, super high humidity at 95-100%. The roof might be closed as well if the light rain/showers don’t stop before the match. Very unfavourable conditions for Rafa. There are reasons why he only won this event once in 2005.
That said, I’m confident in current Rafa.
Go, Rafa. Beat this youngster on this super fast surface and send a message to the tour. Let him experience your true level of play and set another tone for the matchup.
I enjoyed your thoughtful comments and agree with them. Nick wants a closed roof so that will be interesting. Someone mentioned that Rafa also prefers the balls in Beijing over Cincy. Rafa did not play well at either Masters, but he is looking so confident now. Vamos Rafa! You can do it.
Many thanks, va4favre. It’s tough for Rafa but actually like this matchup a lot and treat almost every match of Rafa in the same way. 🙂
The courts at Beijing and Shanghai are super fast, faster than Cincy for sure and are the fastest along with Paris (Wimby is not that fast). But the bounce at Beijing is pretty decent.
Rafa’s peak level is simply the highest along with Fed’s. In a way he is still peaking now but not in a consistent way. And he tends to get nervous and ratlled much more than before (barring the last 2.5 years).
But because I know (and believe) how good he truly is, as long as he is healthy and motivated, almost every match should be on his racquet. Or to be more correct, his nerves.
Anyone but Nick right now (I actually like him very much), Rafa shouldn’t lose to. Of course at Shanghai the list will be expanded. :p
Cheers.
Rafa congrats and good luck Champ.vamossssssssssssss you are so clouse to win againg.love your fans for ever .🎾🎾🎾🎾👍👍👍👍🇺🇸❤️🏆😘😇❤️
Good luck on Sunday. Just focus, I know you can do it. 👍👍😍😍
Good luck for the final. Will be a tough match but you can do it. Vamos Rafa <3
Kyrgios seems to be in a positive frame of mind, so this will be a competitive match. All the best, Rafael. Good luck-you are playing great tennis💪👏👍❣️
well done you,hope you do well on sunday will be watching you vamos rafa.
Good luck ! Rafa you can do it..💪💪💪 Vamos🏆
Do what you came to do Rafa. Wishing you another trophy.
RAFA ROCKS
Buena suerte Rafa
Goodluck Rafa
Go Rafa
My young brother Rafael WILL have to win, no matter what.