Reigning ATP World Tour Champion Rafael Nadal extended his clay court winning streak to 32 matches in a row as he defeated No. 7 seed and hometown native Fernando Verdasco 6-4, 7-5, in the quarter-finals of the Mutua Madrilena Madrid Open on Friday night.
The 22-year-old Spaniard improved to 9-0 lifetime against Verdasco and to an ATP World Tour-best 40-3 match record on the season. He is 18-0 on clay this year, losing only one set, that coming in the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters final last month to Novak Djokovic, who he will meet in the semi-finals on Saturday. Nadal is 13-4 lifetime against Djokovic, including an 8-0 mark on clay.
Nadal comes into the semi-finals with a 149-4 record on clay since 2005 and he will be attempting to reach his seventh final of the season. He is trying to become the first player (since 1990) to win all three ATP World Tour Masters 1000 clay tournaments in the same year. He's won titles at the Australian Open and ATP World Tour Masters 1000 events in Indian Wells, Monte-Carlo and Rome along with Barcelona. He also reached the final in Rotterdam.
Nadal captured the opening set in 47 minutes by breaking in the 10th game at 0-40 as Verdasco hit a forehand long. In the previous game, Nadal escaped from a 0-30 deficit to hold.
In the second set, Verdasco took advantage of nine unforced errors by Nadal in the first three games to take a double break, 3-0 lead. Verdasco made it 4-0 before Nadal held for the first time. In the next game, Verdasco was broken at 15-40 as he netted a forehand on break point. Nadal held again and then broke Verdasco to level the set at 4-4. Verdasco saved two match points on his serve in the ninth game, rallying from 15-40 down. But in the 11th game, Verdasco was broken at 0-40 when he hit a forehand long.
Asked what his frame of mind was at 0-4 in the second set, Nadal said; "[I was] just trying to be more aggressive in order to prepare for the third and get a good feeling for the next set. I was playing rather poorly at that moment."
Looking ahead to the weekend, Nadal tried to play down his heavy favouritism to win the title and, more immediately, to win his semi-final against Djokovic. "In this tournament I don’t even think that I’m favorite. I’m one of the four players in semi-finals and we’ll see what happens, because I think that these conditions are quite different from a normal clay court tournament and playing against [Djokovic] is going to be a true challenge. Djokovic is going to try to make me be more inside and to make me use my forehand more."
Third seed Djokovic hit five aces and won 72 per cent of service points to beat Croatian wild card Ivan Ljubicic 6-4, 6-4 in one hour and 45 minutes. Djokovic had also beaten Ljubicic in April 2008 at ATP World Tour Masters 1000 Monte-Carlo.
Djokovic, who celebrates his 22nd birthday on 22 May, also reached the Madrid semi-finals in 2007 (l. to Nalbandian). He has a 37-10 record on the 2009 ATP World Tour season (15-4 on clay), which includes two ATP World Tour titles at Dubai (d. Ferrer) and Belgrade (d. Kubot). He has also reached the past three finals at ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tournaments in Miami (l. to Murray), Monte-Carlo and Rome (l. to Nadal both times).
"The high altitude [was] more suitable to his style," said Djokovic. "I knew I had to get as many returns back as possible to get into the rally, where I knew I had more chances than he did and I think that was the key today. I was trying to open up the court more."
Ljubicic, 30, currently No. 54 in the South African Airways 2009 ATP Rankings, dropped to a 14-11 season mark. He reached the Madrid final in 2005 (l. to Nadal).
(From Website : http://www.atpworldtour.com/TENNIS/1/EN/NEWS/NEWSARTICLE_3669.ASP)
