KEY BISCAYNE (Florida): Rafa Nadal celebrated his 1,000th tour level match with a come-from-behind victory over German veteran Philipp Kohlschreiber to reach the fourth round of the Miami Open on Sunday.

World number 31 Kohlschreiber was on fire early, ripping through the first set in only 21 minutes but fifth seed Nadal flipped the switch and turned the match on its head to prevail 0-6, 6-2, 6-3 on the main stadium hard court at Crandon Park, a comeback that left him unusually pumped up for an early-round win.

When Nadal closed it out, he threw an uppercut, leaned back and screamed at the sky as the stadium crowd roared.

“It was a good feeling to have a comeback like I had today,” said Nadal, who next faces France’s Nicolas Mahut. Mahut beat Argentine Guido Pella 6-4 6-3. “He was doing everything good, but I played a great second and third set.”

Japan’s Kei Nishikori came through a tough test against Spaniard Fernando Verdasco 7-6 (7-2), 6-7(5-7) 6-1.

Last year’s beaten finalist, Nishikori will face Argentine Federico Del Bonis, who beat Germany’s Jan-Lennard Struff 7-6 (7-5), 6-1.

Milos Raonic withdrew before his match against American qualifier Jared Donaldson, blaming a persistent hamstring injury.

“It’s related to the previous injury I sustained almost four weeks ago... in Delray Beach,” the Canadian told reporters.

On the women’s side, top-ranked Angelique Kerber lost the first three games and then rallied to beat American Shelby Rogers 6-4, 7-5.

With no sign of the rain that interrupted the past two days on Key Biscayne, Kerber was joined in the round of 16 by Britain’s Johanna Konta, American Venus Williams

and Russia’s Svetlana Kuznetsova all who had comfortable wins.

An upset looked possible when the Rogers won the first three games of the opening set but Kerber recovered to win six of the next seven.

It was a similar story in the second set where Rogers, having saved a break point, hit some good winners to go 4-2 up only for the German to power back and secure a fourth round meeting with Japanese qualifier Risa Ozaki who beat German Julia Georges 7-6 (7-5), 6-3.

Russian seventh seed Kuznetsova, the runner-up last year, stayed on track for another tilt at the championship when she beat American qualifier Taylor Townsend 6-4, 6-2.

The next challenge for 2006 champion Kuznetsova will be 11th seed Venus Williams, a three-time Miami champion, who was far too good for Romanian qualifier Patricia Maria Tig 6-3, 6-0.

Third seed Halep took less than an hour to polish off qualifier Anett Kontaveit of Estonia 6-3, 6-0 but eighth seed Madison Keys was sent packing, falling to 72nd-ranked Spaniard Lara Arruabarrena 7-5, 7-5.

Tenth seed Konta beat 57th ranked Pauline Parmentier of France, 6-4, 6-0 while Australian 14th seed Sam Stosur also won her third-round match, Stosur earning a date with Halep.

Published in Dawn, March 28th, 2017