Cincinnati: Rafael Nadal continued his perfect run on the North American hardcourts taming Czech Tomas Berdych 7-5, 7-6 (4) at the Western and Southern Open on Saturday to setup a final showdown with big-hitting American John Isner.Earlier, unseeded Isner had blasted his way into the final with a 6-7, (5) 7-6, (9) 6-3 marathon win over Argentine Juan Martin Del Potro. Rebounding nicely from a shock first round upset at Wimbledon, Nadal has been in sizzling form picking up his 58th career title last week in Montreal while extending his hardcourt winning streak to 14-0 with a run to the final in Cincinnati.
A win on Sunday in his first Cincinnati final would give the third ranked Spaniard his ninth title of the year and leave him the red-hot favourite heading into the US
A win on Sunday in his first Cincinnati final would give the third ranked Spaniard his ninth title of the year and leave him the red-hot favourite heading into the US
Open which begins on August 26 in Flushing Meadows.
“It’s a very nice feeling,” said Nadal. “For me, this one is a tournament that I never was able to play very well. “I said last week, in Cincinnati I never felt that I was playing well and this year the situation is different.
“I am having the right feelings on court. I’m playing aggressive.” Nadal had the only break of a tight opening set to take the first set off the Czech in Cincinnati and grab a 1-0 lead. In the second, Berdych, battling to end a run of 13 straight losses to the Spaniard, broke to go up 4-2 only to watch Nadal break right back and go onto take the tiebreak (7-4) and the match.
A contest between the towering 6-foot, 10-inch (2.06m) Isner and the 6-foot, 6-inch (1.98m) Del Potro was always going to be a brui ing baseline battle and the match more than lived up to predictions as the two giants slugged it out for 2 hours and 47 minutes.
The semi-finals had a dramatically different look from what tennis fans might have hoped with the ATP Tour’s ‘big four;’ world No. 1 Novak Djokovic, number two Andy Murray, number three Nadal and five-time Cincinnati champion Roger Federer all featuring in the last eight.
Isner, who delivered the biggest shock of the quarter-finals toppling Djokovic, has traditionally saved his best for the home crowd with 13 of the his 15 career ATP Tour final appearances coming in the US and he proved once again to be a crowd pleaser pounding 23 aces past his opponent.
Since retiring in the second round at Wimbledon with a left knee injury Isner has been in sizzling hardcourt form putting together a 15-3 match record while picking up his seventh career title in Atlanta followed by a runnerup finish in Washington.
“I have been playing well, really in pretty much all facets of my game. There’s definitely some stuff I can always improve on, but I do think I’m playing well,” he said. In a tight opening set that failed to produce a break, it was Del Potro taking the initiative winning the tiebreak 7-5.
World No. 1 Serena Williams fought her way to a 7-5, 7-5 win over defending champion Li Na to reach the final of the Western and Southern Open on Saturday and close in on one of the few titles to elude her.
Meanwhile, India’s Rohan Bopanna and his French partner Edouard Roger-Vasselin were knocked out of the ATP Cincinnati Masters tennis by Spanish duo Marcel Granollers and Marc Lopez in the semi-finals. The
eighth-seeded Indo-French combination failed to get any
of the five break points
and went down 5-7, 2-6 to Spanish tandem on Saturday. The Spaniards are seeking their second Masters 1000 title, having won in Rome last year.
Agencies
For More:http://www.enewspaperofindia.com
No comments:
Post a Comment