Barcelona: Rafa Nadal moved to within one victory of an eighth Barcelona Open title in nine years when he thrashed Canadian fifth seed Milos Raonic 6-4, 6-0 yesterday to set up a final against fourth-seeded Spanish compatriot Nicolas Almagro.
Chasing a fourth title of the year after returning from a seven-month injury layoff in February, Nadal recovered from a slow start on the clay at the Real Club de Tenis when he lost his serve in the second game to fall 2-0 behind.
The French Open champion broke straight back and again for a 4-3 lead before closing out the first set and he turned the screw in the second to secure a comfortable third win in three matches against the big-serving world number 13.
“I am very happy to be in the final again,” Nadal said in an interview with Spanish television broadcaster TVE.
“Whatever happens tomorrow it has been a great tournament for me and to reach six finals out of six since I returned from injury could hardly be better,” he added.
Almagro, who reached the semi-finals in 2006 and 2011, improved his head-to-head record against eighth-seeded German Philipp Kohlschreiber to five wins and three defeats with a similarly clinical performance.
The 27-year-old, bidding for a 13th career title, did not face a single break point and converted four of his seven opportunities to seal a 6-2 6-1 victory in just over 50 minutes.
“I know that Nico is playing at a very high level and has had a fantastic week,” Nadal said.
“I will try to play aggressively and dominate the points although it will be very hard against a player like him.”
It was a relief for organisers to get both semi-finals out of the way after the rain that has fallen throughout the week in the Catalan capital delayed the start of play.
Nadal is looking to bounce back from his defeat by Serbian world number one Novak Djokovic in Sunday’s Monte Carlo Masters final.
The 26-year-old Majorcan, who like Raonic had to play twice on Friday because of the rain delays, extended his winning streak in Barcelona to 38 matches, his only defeat coming against compatriot Alex Corretja, now Spain’s Davis Cup captain, in the second round in 2003.
Meanwhile in Bucharest, Lukas Rosol will bid to lift his first ATP World Tour trophy today after a stellar performance saw the Czech oust three-time champion Gilles Simon 6-2, 6-3 in Saturday’s semi-finals at the BRD Nastase Tiriac Trophy.
Rosol will square off against Guillermo Garcia-Lopez for the first time in an all-unseeded final.
“I knew that I could beat him if I played good tennis,” said Rosol.
“I’m happy because today my game was working really well. Tomorrow I hope to win my first final. I have a good record at Challengers, where I only lost one of my six finals. So I hope that I can continue this good run. For sure, this tournament will always be in my memory since I reached my first final here.”
Garcia-Lopez has put together an equally impressive run, also toppling three seeds to reach the final.
A day after knocking out World No. 10 Janko Tipsarevic, Garcia-Lopez backed up the victory by defeating fifth seed and 2011 titlist Florian Mayer 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 in two hours and nine minutes.
“I’m really happy right now. It’s (been) a long time since I played in a final,” said Garcia-Lopez. “I feel really good. Every match here, I’ve played three sets. So that makes me confident because I’ve been winning the matches in the last set.”
The Spaniard is aiming to win his first title since October 2010, when he shocked Nadal en route to capturing the crown at the Thailand Open in Bangkok.
Agencies
