Rafael Nadal battles back from the brink to reach Indian Wells third round

Rafael Nadal was forced to dig deep to reach the third round of Indian Wells on Saturday after the Spaniard fought back from two breaks down in the deciding set to defeat Sebastian Korda.

The Australian Open champion appeared in cruise control after racing through the first set, but it was a complete reversal in the second as Korda dominated. The American looked poised for one of the biggest wins of his career when he led Nadal 5-2 in the third set, only for the Spaniard to reel off four games in a row before taking the victory in the tiebreak.

"I feel very, very lucky today to be through," Nadal said after a 6-2, 1-6, 7-6 win at the Masters 1000 tournament. "Sebastian was playing some fantastic tennis. I didn't play my best match without a doubt (but) a lot of credit to him that he played so aggressive and he put me in a lot of trouble."

There wasn't such trouble for new men's world No 1 Daniil Medvedev, who opened the action on Stadium court in and after saving a break point in the opening game had little trouble with Czech qualifier Tomas Machac.

The reigning US Open champion wrapped up a 6-3, 6-2 victory in 70 minutes, although Medvedev said it "was not as easy as it seems" after he sealed the win on a third match point. The difference, he said, was consistency.

"If you look, the first set was pretty even. He made just a few unforced errors and maybe some bad decisions in crucial moments. That's how tennis is sometimes," Medvedev said.

Medvedev said it was a "great feeling" to take the court as world No 1, "something I've always dreamed of", but he will have to reach the quarter-finals to prevent Novak Djokovic, absent this week due to US Covid-19 travel restrictions on the unvaccinated, from reclaiming the top