Nadal powers past Norrie to reach Bastad quarters
Rafael Nadal continued his Olympic preparations with a confident 6-4, 6-4 win over Cameron Norrie at the Bastad Open on Thursday, showing signs of the power hitting that fired him to 14 French Open titles. The 38-year-old Spaniard continued his return to winning ways on the Swedish clay as he moved into the quarter-finals, racking up his ninth Tour win of the year and back-to-back wins for the first time since reaching the last-16 of the Madrid Open in April. "Great feelings now, I've been a while now without playing on the Tour since Roland Garros and had the chance to compete well against a great player like Cameron," said Nadal during his on-court interview. "I think I played, for moments, good tennis." Nadal now leads the former world number eight Briton 5-1 in their head-to-head record. The 22-time Grand Slam champion was unstoppable as he ground his opponent down with powerful, topspin-heavy ground strokes. He broke Norrie again and served out to love, having won five games in a row to take the match in straight sets. (AFP)