Nadal and Fognini battle through yet another saga

You never know which Fabio Fognini will show up on court. The Italian can flawlessly exhibit his shot making prowess at times, like when he beat both Kei Nishikori and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in March, or he can fall apart in losses—the 29-year-old has lost three times to players ranked outside of the Top 80 in 2017.

But you can almost guarantee that one of tennis’ great showmen will always bring his best when Rafael Nadal is on the other side of the net.

In Madrid, Fognini pushed the in-form Spaniard in a thrilling three-set loss, 7-6(3), 3-6, 6-4 in two hours and 57 minutes.

“I think that even though I played really badly, my attitude has been very positive," Nadal said. "My attitude and the will to win today's match was there. My level of tennis was not so high today, but I managed to make it through.”

Nadal now owns a 9-3 record against Fognini, but the Italian has gotten the better of the former world No. 1 on big stages before. The world No. 29-ranked Italian notably beat Nadal at the 2015 US Open, showing his will to fight when he came back from two sets down.

“He play great. It was not a match that I lost, even if I had opportunities. It's a match that he wins,”Nadal said after the loss.“Not happy that he played better than me, but that's what happened.”

On Wednesday, it was Nadal who found a way to pull out the match, despite not playing his very best. He still won this incredible rally:

After Fognini turned the match around to force a decider, it looked like the Italian had a realistic chance to become only the third player to beat Nadal on clay three times (joining Novak Djokovic and Gaston Gaudio).

Yet as he has throughout his now 11-match winning streak, Nadal survived.

So while Nadal did indeed get through, it should be no surprise that Fognini provided a stiff test, becoming only the second player (Kyle Edmund in Monte Carlo, the other) to push the Spaniard to a third set during his recent winning streak.

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