TennisSection previews the Indian Wells 2022 as Rafael Nadal takes on Reilly Opelka in the Round of 16 on Wednesday, March 16th, 2022.
Will Rafael Nadal get the win? Will Reilly Opelka pull off the upset at Indian Wells? This will be an interesting one, where we have the best player of the season and the famous Spanish legend taking on a home favorite with one of the biggest serves of all time. Who will triumph to move through to the quarterfinals at Indian Wells 2022?
Rafael Nadal got a tricky win over tennis tactician Dan Evans, winning a very tight first set having to come back from behind. The second set was more one way traffic, but despite the straight sets scoreline by no means was it an easy match. He now looks ahead at Indian Wells to Reilly Opelka who got a great win himself. I don’t think this one will be easy either. Opelka managed to convert ⅔ break points himself, and Nadal hasn’t been serving great, I think because the court is so slow it both hinders and helps Opelka, and I do think he’ll be able to get his hands on quite a few balls and stay in some of the rallies since the weight of shot won’t affect him as much as other players. Let’s see if Nadal can keep his incredible streak going at Indian Wells 2022.
Reilly Opelka got through a tough match against Denis Shapovalov, getting revenging for his loss down under and managing to win the 2nd and 3rd sets with a break. Opelka is one of the calmest players on the ATP Tour, and I do think this will help him quite a bit with Rafael Nadal. The court here at Indian Wells is slow which will hinder Opelka’s serve and help Nadal, but it’s still a hard court and the ball will still stay low which will still allow Opelka to come to the net and get ahead in some of the baseline rallies just off of the serve. Nadal is one of the greatest returners of all time, but he hasn’t been playing his top level in the last couple of matches so I do think he’ll struggle as Opelka aims to pull off the upset at Indian Wells 2022.
Rafael Nadal and Reilly Opelka have met once before, with Rafael Nadal leading the head to head 1-0. Their one meeting came on the red clay of Europe, with no surprise that Nadal won comfortably. While this court is as slow as clay, it does not bounce like it, I think Nadal will struggle in some of the rallies as he will be standing really far back like he likes to do, but Opelkas surprising consistency in the rallies and his obvious counter to Rafa’s topspin will help him unless Nadal is able to be aggressive. I of course expect Nadal to come through but it will be a tough one as he aims to reach the last eight at Indian Wells 2022.
Free Tennis Pick and Prediction: Rafael Nadal to win in 3 sets.
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