24
Apr
ATP - Barcelona Final Preview
When you’re covering the ATP Tour you occasionally experience a déjà vu moment that makes you squint your eyes and think, “hold on a sec, didn’t we just do this?” In a blink of an eye a week has passed and fellow Spaniards Rafael Nadal and David Ferrer are set to battle for a second consecutive clay court title. The home crowd is sure to be electric when the world-number-one, Nadal, and sixth-ranked Ferrer meet Sunday afternoon in the Barcelona Open Banco Sabadell final. Last Sunday, the top-two clay court players in the game faced each other for the Monte-Carlo Masters championship, with Nadal prevailing 6-4 7-5. It was pure revenge for the top-ranked Spaniard who lost to Ferrer in the Australian Open quarterfinals, in January, after suffering a hamstring injury early in the match. The loss ended his hopes for the “Rafa Slam” having won the previous three majors. In the Monte-Carlo final, the match began in chippy fashion which saw three consecutive breaks of serve, with Nadal eventually holding on for the slim 6-4 edge. In the second frame they again exchanged early breaks but an unflappable Nadal snatched the break back late after Ferrer’s backhand sailed long. In the end, the King of Clay notched 22 winners and nailed 60% of his first serves en route to his first title of 2011.
Both players are coming into their Barcelona rubber match after registering four stellar results this week. In my preview for Nadal’s semifinal match against Ivan Dodig I mentioned that he must get bored sometimes when playing on clay. I’ll extend that observation to Ferrer as well, who cruised to Sunday’s final with 6-2 6-2, 6-3 6-2, 6-3 6-3 and 6-3 6-4 scorelines. In the semifinals, he dispatched fellow Spaniard, Nicolas Almagro, after also defeating him in late February for the Acapulco title. Nadal had an even easier go of it against Ivan Dodig in his semifinal, clinching his 500th career victory. He is the fourth active player to do so, behind Roger Federer, Lleyton Hewitt and Andy Roddick. The Spaniard was on fire from the start, connecting on 71% of his first serves and breaking the big-serving Croat six times. The most impressive stat of the week has by far been Rafa’s loss of only 15 games in his four matches.
Remarkably, this is the fourth encounter between Nadal and Ferrer at the Barcelona Open since 2007. Nadal has taken all three previous meetings, dropping only one set in the process. They met in the final in both 2008 and 2009 with the scorelines reading 6-1 4-6 6-1 and 6-1 7-5. Overall, the top player in the world owns a 12-4 advantage over his countryman, including nine of ten meetings on clay.
I’m trying to rack my brain for reasons why Ferrer will win. He’s a great clay court player but employs more of a defensive style, forcing his opponent into long rallies and waiting for the right moment to pounce on a forehand winner. He lulled Nadal into committing a large number of unforced errors in Melbourne but that was not on clay and Rafa was hobbled. As I mentioned in my preview for last week’s final, while Ferrer has the game to counter Nadal’s clay-court game and neutralize his deep and powerful topspin shots, he lacks the weapon (e.g. Del Potro’s power and Djokovic’s laser-like precision) to put Rafa away late in the match, as we witnessed in Monte-Carlo. Again, it will be close, but the five-time Barcelona Open champ is hungry for a win in front of the home crowd. Once more, buen provecho, Rafa.
Both players are coming into their Barcelona rubber match after registering four stellar results this week. In my preview for Nadal’s semifinal match against Ivan Dodig I mentioned that he must get bored sometimes when playing on clay. I’ll extend that observation to Ferrer as well, who cruised to Sunday’s final with 6-2 6-2, 6-3 6-2, 6-3 6-3 and 6-3 6-4 scorelines. In the semifinals, he dispatched fellow Spaniard, Nicolas Almagro, after also defeating him in late February for the Acapulco title. Nadal had an even easier go of it against Ivan Dodig in his semifinal, clinching his 500th career victory. He is the fourth active player to do so, behind Roger Federer, Lleyton Hewitt and Andy Roddick. The Spaniard was on fire from the start, connecting on 71% of his first serves and breaking the big-serving Croat six times. The most impressive stat of the week has by far been Rafa’s loss of only 15 games in his four matches.
Remarkably, this is the fourth encounter between Nadal and Ferrer at the Barcelona Open since 2007. Nadal has taken all three previous meetings, dropping only one set in the process. They met in the final in both 2008 and 2009 with the scorelines reading 6-1 4-6 6-1 and 6-1 7-5. Overall, the top player in the world owns a 12-4 advantage over his countryman, including nine of ten meetings on clay.
I’m trying to rack my brain for reasons why Ferrer will win. He’s a great clay court player but employs more of a defensive style, forcing his opponent into long rallies and waiting for the right moment to pounce on a forehand winner. He lulled Nadal into committing a large number of unforced errors in Melbourne but that was not on clay and Rafa was hobbled. As I mentioned in my preview for last week’s final, while Ferrer has the game to counter Nadal’s clay-court game and neutralize his deep and powerful topspin shots, he lacks the weapon (e.g. Del Potro’s power and Djokovic’s laser-like precision) to put Rafa away late in the match, as we witnessed in Monte-Carlo. Again, it will be close, but the five-time Barcelona Open champ is hungry for a win in front of the home crowd. Once more, buen provecho, Rafa.
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