Rafael Nadal and a Narrow Win: Qatar Open, Day 3

The third day of the Qatar Open 2011 brings us news of the top-two players currently in tennis, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal. 

Nadal faced off against the Slovakian challenger, Lukas Lacko, while Roger Federer prepares for his match in the quarterfinals against the Serbian, Viktor Troicki.

Rafael Nadal just barely squeaked by his second round competitor, Lukas Lacko, who is currently ranked 89th in the world. Nadal lost the serve early in the first set, which went to a tiebreak, and lost the second set, 6-0. 

The final score for the match was 7-6(3), 0-6, 6-3. 

The funny Spaniard said, “Well, I think I didn’t play bad, no? But I think he played really good, really good match.” 

Nadal them immediately left to play a doubles match with his partner, Marc Lopez. The team beat Mohammed Ghareeb and Mubarak Zaid, 6-2, 6-0. They will meet the Russian Teymuraz Gabashvili and the German Philipp Kohlschreiber in the semifinals.

Thursday is the beginning of the quarterfinals and all of the matchups have been figured out. 

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga takes on Guillermo Garcia-Lopez, Roger Federer is to play Viktor Troicki, Rafael Nadal will play Ernets Gulbis and Nikolay Davydenko is matched-up against Ivo Karlovic.

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