Rafael Nadal vs. Philipp Kohlschreiber: Score, Reaction from 2017 Miami Open

In his 1,000th career match, Rafael Nadal needed three sets to beat Philipp Kohlschreiber at the 2017 Miami Open.

The Spanish star was seemingly overwhelmed in the first set but bounced back to earn a 0-6, 6-2, 6-3 win.

Tennis TV captured the game-winning point, featuring a lot of emotion from Nadal:

The win puts him in the round of 16, where he will take on Nicolas Mahut. Kei Nishikori remains alive as the No. 2 seed, but he is the only top-10 seed on the bottom half of the bracket besides Nadal.

Of course, Sunday's match was anything but easy for the No. 5 seed in Miami.

Kohlschreiber wasn't just better in the first set, he was downright dominant to earn a 6-0 win.

Ben Rothenberg of the New York Times described the rarity of the bagel, although it's still happened to Nadal more than it has to some other top names in the sport:

Not only did the underdog win twice as many points as Nadal, he won all three break chances and saved two on his own, per ATPWorldTour.com. Everything that could go his way was in the opening set.

However, things changed quickly from there. Nadal only dropped five more games the entire match and didn't even see a single break point in that stretch.

Jose Morgado of Record Portugal noted the dominance with the serve after the early struggles:

As you can see from this point in the third set, it took a lot of effort to win any points against the talented player:

The 30-year-old finished with zero aces, but he was accurate with his serve and made few mistakes. The first set seemed to be a wake-up call as well, and he will hopefully turn that into cleaner play going forward.

Although Mahut isn't seeded, the No. 55 player in the world could still provide a challenge after knocking out Steve Johnson and Guido Pella. Nadal better be prepared in his 1,001st career match.

Post-Match Reaction

Despite the score from the first set, Nadal gave full credit to his opponent after the match.

"He was doing everything good, so that's sport," he said, per ATPWorldTour.com. "When somebody is playing the way that he was playing that first set, I lose the set because he was playing too good. That's it."

The key was his ability to raise his level of play to eventually come away with the win.

"The positive thing is I held the pressure well this afternoon after a very tough first set," he added. "I resisted well in the first few games of the second set and then I think I played a great second and third set."

Kohlschreiber is a talented player, which makes Nadal's performance in the second and third sets even more impressive.