Nadal, Gulbis avoid seed exodus in Doha

Rafael Nadal advances to the Doha quarterfinals with a three-set win over Tobias Kamke on Wednesday. Nadal is joined there by Ernests Gulbis, who held off Lukasz Kubot in three sets.

(1) Rafael Nadal d. Tobias Kamke 6-3, 6-7(3), 6-3

Nadal earned his second win of the season on the first day of 2014, but not before an entertaining fight. The top-seeded Spaniard scraped past Kamke in two hours and 25 minutes to set up a quarterfinal showdown against Ernests Gulbis. A back-and-forth affair saw Kamke give away a second-set break before recovering to dominate the ensuing tiebreaker. Nonetheless, Nadal restored order to the proceedings by breaking once in the third while facing no break points on his own serve.

“I spent a lot of time on court and I won,” the world No. 1 noted. “That’s the very important thing. I think I played much better today than yesterday. The opponent played great; played very aggressive.”

Nadal and Gulbis are the only seeds through to the last eight. David Ferrer, Andy Murray, Richard Gasquet, Philipp Kohlschreiber, and Fernando Verdasco all lost on New Year’s Day. Murray squandered a set lead and went down to Florian Mayer 3-6, 6-4, 6-2.

(7) Ernests Gulbis d. Lukasz Kubot 6-2, 4-6, 6-3

Gulbis, who had defeated Daniel Evans in the opening around, once again failed to close a match out in straight sets only to recover in the third. Doha’s No. 7 seed fired 12 aces en route to beating Kubot in two hours and eight minutes on Wednesday.

For a second straight day, Gulbis double-faulted on set point to be pushed to a decider. Again, though, he started fast when it mattered most. After erasing Evans 6-0 in the third, Gulbis stormed ahead of Kubot 4-0. The Pole got one of the breaks back, but Gulbis had little trouble serving the match out at 5-3.

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