istomin leads 2-1 in the 2nd, on serve

last service game he finally strung some first serves together and he held at love, but in rafas service game before that he was shanking shit all over the place

2 break points for istomin, nadal serving at 2-3 15-40

long rally won by nadal, not really badly played by istomin to 30-40

and then istomin shanks a 2nd serve return and it's back to deuce

nadal manages to escape

istomin comes back with an easy hold at love, including consecutive aces to finish the game

4-3 istomin, nadal to serve and now nadal is calling for the trainer during the changeover

5-4, 2 easy holds

istomin got his serve percentage up in this set and is getting more cheap points, if he can continue to find his groove and take this set...

i'm sort of expecting him to get broken @ 5-5 or totally choke in the breaker, but if he can level this match that'd be p. cool

istomin holds to 6-5 after a very long 11th game that included a bp and at least 2 game points wasted

tiebreak time

istomin aces down the t, 1-0

nadal serves out wide, istomin with a defense backhand short ball, and nadal tries some retarded drop volley that he dumps into the net (with an open court to work with), 2-0

istomin hits an easy 2nd serve return long, again, 2-1 (87mph and he chunks it rofl)

big serve out wide, 3-1 istomin

i don't even.. istomin tries a drop shot in the middle of the rally (from behind the baseline rofl wtf?), and places it perfectly, nadal barely gets to it and puts it into the net, 4-1

ridiculous point, nadal in control most of it, tries a drop shot, istomin gets to it and hits a cc bh winner while doing a split, 5-1 istomin at the changeover

istomin just wide on a cc bh, 5-2

good serve, but nadal works his way into control and then hits a rough bh volley, 5-3

istomin dumps his reply to the return into the net, 5-4, and he loses both points on his serve and both mini breaks

nadal hits the net and it lands short but on istomins side, 5-5

big serve out wide, and its 6-5 nadal

istomin with a careless bh long, 7-5 nadal

First time venturing into here and find live commentary! ;D

Inching ever closer to a Fedal final!