Quarter of Death recap: Nadal, Federer, Kyrgios and Djokovic prevail

After a week of hearing about it, imagining it and predicting it, tennis fans got their first look at the vaunted Quarter of Death in Indian Wells on Tuesday. All of the famed slayers—Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, Juan Martin del Potro, Nick Kyrgios, Alexander Zverev—were still present and accounted for at the start of the day. Here’s a look, match by match, at where they stood by the end.

Rafael Nadal d. Fernando Verdasco 6-3, 7-5

They’re both lefties, they’re both Spaniards and they both love to take hold of a topspin forehand. What has always separated the two of them is the minor fact that Nadal does everything on a court a little—or, in some cases, a lot—better than Verdasco. Most important, Rafa’s much steadier with every shot, and his 15-3 record against Verdasco coming into this match proved it.

But Verdasco’s unsteadiness also means that the result of their matches lies largely in his hands. If he’s connecting on his Mach 10 forehands, as he did at the Australian Open last year, he can win. But if he can’t connect for two full sets, which is almost always the case, he can’t win. It was the latter on Tuesday in Indian Wells. Verdasco had his moments and his chances in the second set, and when he belted a huge forehand with Nadal serving at 3-4, it looked like he might catch fire. But Verdasco fizzled instead, double-faulting seven times, most crucially to give Rafa the break at 5-5 in the second.

Judging by their career record, you might think that beating Verdasco isn’t a big deal for Nadal. But because that loss in Australia was a sort of low point for Rafa—it was just the second time he had gone out in the first round at a Grand Slam—any match against Verdasco now serves as a kind of baseline for how he’s doing. He’s obviously much better now than he was then. He’s using his serve more effectively and keeping his forehand deeper, and his backhand is better than ever.

But there was still one small cause for concern in this match. One of Nadal’s troubles over the last three years has been closing out matches when he has a lead—we saw it again in the Australian Open final against Federer. And we briefly saw it against Verdasco. Rafa broke at 1-1 in the second set (on another Verdasco double fault), but rather than run away with it from there, he promptly lost the next eight points, many of them on wild errors. Rafa settled down again, with some help from Verdasco. But with his draw, that might be the last time he’ll get help like that.

Nick Kyrgios d. Alexander Zverev 6-3, 6-4

Maybe all of Kyrgios’ opponents should just skip their first meetings with him. Nadal, Federer, Djokovic and now Zverev have lost their initial matches against the Aussie. If that shows us anything, it’s that when Kyrgios has something to prove, he can, well, prove it.

This match also showed that while the difference between a 21-year-old and a 19-year-old might not sound like much, in ATP terms it really does mean something. Kyrgios was the more self-assured player, the one dictating terms, the one staying within himself and not going for too much. At the same time, Zverev was out of sorts, frustrated by his inability to counter Kyrgios’ near-perfect serving and overhitting his forehand.

There were moments when it looked like that might turn around. Kyrgios began ranting at chair umpire Cedric Mourier about late calls, and Zverev finally hit his first forehand winner of the match at 2-3 in the second set. But Kyrgios eventually contained himself; he was playing too well to do anything else. By the latter stages of the match, he was in full exhibition flow, cruising from tweeners to casual forehand slices to drop shots to touch volleys. Kyrgios was moving at half speed, but Zverev, despite scrambling and flopping all over the court, could never catch up. I’m guessing he’ll get closer the second time around.

Roger Federer d. Steve Johnson 7-6 (3), 7-6 (4)

Put Federer on the same court with an American and you’re virtually guaranteed of one thing: a fast match. James Blake, Andy Roddick, Andre Agassi: They all played like they were double-parked, which is how Federer likes to do it, too. The same was true on Tuesday of his match with speedy Johnson. It took them just 94 minutes to get through two tiebreaker sets.

The best way to describe this match is “frictionless.” The two men traded forehand winners and service holds back and forth without much fuss or muss. Like servebots struggling to make returns, they seemed ready to get to the tiebreaker.

Once there, of course, Federer’s return miraculously improved. In the first breaker, Johnson missed two second serves, Federer pounced and the set was over. In the second, Federer reflexed back two first-serve returns and watched as Johnson put makeable forehands into the net. Now Federer is moving on to bigger things: namely, Rafa. There should be a little more friction in those rallies, and fanfare between them.

Novak Djokovic d. Juan Martin del Potro 7-5, 4-6, 6-1

Del Potro broke early in each of the first two sets. He hit his usual share of laser-guided forehand winners. And he won the second. But the big Argentine was an afterthought in this match. That’s because Djokovic played ... like Djokovic again. If this wasn’t the 12-time Slam winner’s best match since last year’s French Open, it was his most characteristic. From start to finish, it was like old times. He jumped on returns; counterpunched Delpo’s shots for blazing winners of his own; played proactively and attacked whenever possible; bristled at his mistakes and celebrated his best moments with gusto. Even during the periods when he was losing, there was no sense of the hesitation, uncertainty and negativity that has plagued him for much of the last year. By the end of the third set, after watching Djokovic send his rifle shots back even faster, all Del Potro could do was walk up to a linesman and ask for a hug.

We’ll see soon enough whether Djokovic can keep it up long enough to live through the Quarter of Death; he has a tough turnaround against Kyrgios on Wednesday afternoon. But now we know he can still summon his best. And we know it’s still as fun, and jaw-dropping, to watch as it ever was.

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