(photo: livetennis)

Rafael Nadal’s substandard form continued after yet another untimely exit on the ATP World tour. The Spaniard suffered a stunning 6-4 7-6 defeat from the hands of Italian Fabio Fognini – his second in a row against the latter this season.

Fognini dominated the first set of the match by winning a commendable 80 percent of his first-serve points and emerged unbroken on his service games to eventually pull off the opening set 6-4.

Nadal regrouped in the second set, making a strong return. He succeeded in breaking his opponent’s serve time and again, but failed to consolidate every time thereafter, as a result of which the spectators saw a tie-breaker.

Fogini, ultimately, held his nerves to win the tie-breaker 8-6 and clinch the third-round battle that lasted for just over two hours, and moves on to square-off against another Spaniard in 66^th-ranked Pablo Andujar in the last-eight stage.

3^rd Round Results

(1) K Nishikori d. (15) S Giraldo 6-2 6-1

(7) RB Agut d. (10) P Cuevas 7-6 6-2

(14) M Klizan d. VE Burgos 6-4 6-3

(12) P Kohlschreiber d. B Paire 6-4 7-6

(3) D Ferrer d. (W) E Ymer 6-3 6-4

P Andujar d. (5) F Lopez 6-3 6-4

T Robredo d. M Granollers 6-2 6-2