Mayer briefly threatened a comeback when he pulled a break back for 5-3 in the fourth set but Nadal served it out at 5-4 with Mayer sending a forehand long on match point. Naomi Osaka exited with a surprise second round defeat after stunning Angelique Kerber in the opener. With chief selector MSK Prasad confirming a middle-order role for KL Rahul before the series, Rahane becomes Dhawan’s shoo-in. Substitute Alvaro Morata scored Spain’s third goal in the second half. What makes Oltmans’ ouster, the latest departure, curious is that some of his own wards were party to the execution. “I know that ranking and draw is irrelevant,” he said. “Just look at the nutmeg in the second half, he’s in the middle of two players and he does that, it shows he is a truly great player. Yacine Brahimi’s long-range shot put Algeria back in the game early in the second half. “It’s lucky when it does go in but either way, I probably would have just had a tap-in if it didn’t. The result ended a run of five successive draws and left them on 11 points, two behind Ireland, who they will play in their final qualifier in Cardiff, and four off leaders Serbia.