ATP World Tour Champion Rafael Nadal won a fifth successive title at the Barcelona Open Banco Sabadell after defeating fellow Spaniard David Ferrer 6-2, 7-5 Sunday in a repeat of the 2008 final. As the winner of the ATP World Tour 500 tennis tournament, Nadal collected € 286,000 and 500 South African Airways 2009 ATP Ranking points.
The 22-year-old Mallorcan clinched his 35th ATP World Tour title (35-9 in finals) and 24th on clay. Last week, he captured his 14th ATP World Tour Masters 1000 title on clay at the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters, where he has won each year since 2005.
Nadal, who received the trophy from Princess Cristina of Spain, said: “I never imagined anything like this. To win again here in Barcelona, in my home club and at such an important tournament is incredible.”
Nadal had held all 23 of his service games this week entering the final, but dropped serve three times against Ferrer in the championship match. The two traded breaks of serve in the first four games of the second set before Nadal succeeded in breaking Ferrer in the 11th game and promptly went on to serve out the match.
“This has been my best match of the year so far on clay,” said Nadal. “David played very well and was very aggressive. It was hard to take control of the match and I was lucky that the second set didn’t slip away from me.”
Ferrer reflected on the match: “The second set was very open. My serve wasn’t great and I lacked a little spark but I’ll leave here happy and with good memories because I know I’m playing good tennis and on a regular basis.”
The two players were facing off for the first time since last year’s final at the ATP World Tour 500 tennis tournament, a match Nadal won in three sets. Nadal now improves to a 7-3 record against Valencia-native Ferrer.
It was the eighth all-Spanish final in Barcelona in the Open Era, including the fourth in the past five years. Nadal had won his first three Barcelona titles by defeating countrymen Juan Carlos Ferrero (2005) and Tommy Robredo (2006) and Argentine Guillermo Canas (2007). A Spaniard has won the Barcelona title the past seven years.
Victory for Nadal marked his 24th straight win in Barcelona, taking him to a 25-1 event record. His only loss came to countryman Alex Corretja in the second round in 2003, when he made his tournament debut at age 16.
Nadal has now won 47 consecutive matches on clay in the month of April, claiming eight titles during that stretch – five in Monte-Carlo and four in Barcelona (last year’s Barcelona final was on May 4). His last loss on clay in April came on April 8, 2005 to Igor Andreev in the Valencia quarter-finals. Since 2005, he has compiled a 142-4 surface match record.
He extended his clay-court winning streak to 25 matches, with his last loss coming to Ferrero in the second round of ATP World Tour Masters 1000 Rome last year. Nadal will attempt to atone for that early exit when he opens against the winner between Italian Andreas Seppi and American Sam Querrey next week as the top seed in Rome.
Nadal leads the ATP World Tour this season with a 33-3 match record and four titles, highlighted by wins at the Australian Open (d. Federer in five sets to win sixth Grand Slam championship) and the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tennis tournaments in Indian Wells (d. Murray) and Monte-Carlo (d. Djokovic). He also was a finalist in February at Rotterdam (l. to Murray).
"Rafa is playing even more aggressively this year," said Ferrer. "He has a great rhythm right from the start and it’s very difficult to beat him."
Ferrer dropped to a 7-7 mark in tour-finals (4-5 on clay) and a 23-9 season match record. The 27 year old also finished runner-up to Novak Djokovic earlier this year at the ATP World Tour 500 tennis tournament in Dubai.
(From Website : http://www.atpworldtour.com/TENNIS/1/EN/NEWS/NEWSARTICLE_3348.ASP)
