Rafael Nadal has progressed into the third round of the Rogers Cup courtesy of a 7-6(4) 6-3 victory over Sergiy Stakhovsky this evening.
The Spanish seventh seed looked to have taken control of the opener when he broke in the seventh game with the first break point of the match, putting him in a position to serve for the set.
However, Stakhovsky had other ideas and eventually forced a tie-break by breaking back. Nadal secured a mini-break in the decider, and that proved to be enough as both players held serve to see the Spaniard run out a 7-4 winner.
Things were more straightforward for the three-time champion in the second as he broke twice in the first six games to race into a 5-1 lead.
The Ukrainian showed signs of life to break back to 5-2, but it was merely a case of delaying the inevitable as Nadal saw out the set 6-3 to progress.
Nadal will now face Mikhail Youzhny in the next round after the Russian cruised past Gilles Simon.
Barney Corkhill
