Rafael Nadal rescued his dream of a fourth straight trophy at the Barcelona Open, turning the first-set tide to swamp Juan Chela 6-4, 6-2 on Friday in their quarter-final.
Spain’s world No. 2 wore an uncharacteristic look of frustration trailing an early break against the baseline grafter from Argentina, ranked 37th with four career titles. Down 4-2, Nadal put in a Herculean effort in the marathon 20-minute eighth game, forcing Chela to fight off three break points over the course of eight deuces.
Nadal finally got what he wanted on his fourth effort when the South American netted a backhand, 3-4. From then on, the three-time Barcelona holder took control in his usual fashion, wrapping up the opening set in 64 minutes and breaking to start the second on his way to victory in 1 hour, 42 minutes.
PHOTO: EPA
“When Chela had points for 5-2, it was tough,” said the treble Roland Garros champion. “But it was more manageable at 3-4 instead.”
The king of clay, on a mission to defend titles not only at the Real club but also in Rome and Paris in coming weeks, has now won 101 of his last 102 clay matches, last losing in the Hamburg final a year ago to Roger Federer.
Nadal will play Denis Gremelmayr in the last four after the unseeded German beat Nicolas Amlagro 6-2 3-6 7-6 (9/7).
“I’m just glad to be in my fourth straight semi here. I’d like to win the tournament again, but I have a semi-final to play first,” Nadal said. “It was a tough match all around and I had to work hard. I just want to do my best to win again.”
Swiss Stanislas Wawrinka beat Spain’s Albert Montanes 6-3, 6-7 (6/8), 6-4 at an event where locals have won six of the last seven editions. The Davis Cup player made a stand on the clay to reach his second semi-final at the Real club.
Second seed David Ferrer put a local into the last four, stopping No. 6 seed and compatriot Tommy Robredo 7-6 (7/4), 6-4 to line up against Wawrinka. The pair played for 2 hours, 5 minutes, producing nearly 50 unforced errors between them in the battle.
Wawrinka needed almost three hours to struggle past Montanes, ranked 87.
Montanes did not help his chances in the duel, striking six double-faults and losing serve four times.
Wawrinka was broken while serving for the match at 5-3, but returned the favor a game later to move through after holding a 5-2 lead and a match point in the second set.
Wawrinka was playing in his third quarter of the season, reaching January’s Doha final where he lost to Andy Murray. He played an Indian Wells quarter against Novak Djokovic and improved to 17-8 on the season.
MUNICH ATP
AFP, MUNICH, Germany
Chile’s Fernando Gonzalez ousted former world No. 1 Marat Safin of Russia to reach the semi-finals of the ATP tournament on Friday as top seed Paul-Henri Mathieu likewise advanced.
Second seed Gonzalez needed 1 hour, 30 minutes to come through a 6-3, 7-5 winner against Safin, who was playing his first ATP quarter-final since last August.
It is the fifth straight victory for the 27-year-old from Santiago against his Russian opponent in seven meetings.
Gonzalez, ranked 15, and winner this year of the Vina del Mar tournament on clay, will next meet Morocco’s Younes El Aynaoui who beat Argentine Juan Martin del Potro 6-4, 6-4 in their quarter-final.
El Aynaoui, who won the 2002 edition, became at 36 the oldest player to reach an ATP semi since Jimmy Connors, who was 40 when he managed that in 1993.
Mathieu, the world No. 18, took two hours to get past Croatian Marin Cilic, ranked 50.
The first set was plain sailing for the Frenchman, but Cilic dug in and won the second 6-4 before Mathieu cranked up his serve a notch to take the decider 6-3.
Mathieu now faces Simone Bolelli, ranked 58, who ousted South Korean Lee Hyung-taik 6-4, 7-6 (7/3).
‘BOWLINE’ AND ‘ARCTOS’: Roy Quaden was hit on the head by a boom, while Nick Smith was struck by the main sheet and thrown across the boat amid rough seas Two sailors have been killed in separate incidents in the treacherous Sydney Hobart Yacht Race, officials said yesterday, as a string of yachts retired in powerful winds and high seas. One of the crew members, 55-year-old Roy Quaden on Flying Fish Arctos, was hit on the head by a boom as the fleet raced down the New South Wales coast, race organizers said. The other man, 65-year-old Nick Smith, was struck by the main sheet aboard Bowline and thrown across the boat, said David Jacobs, vice commodore of the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia. “Unfortunately, he hit his head on the winch, and
Champagne corks often pop and loud, boisterous cheers are usually heard around Constitution Dock when the Sydney Hobart Yacht Race line honors winner finishes in the Tasmanian state capital. There were no such celebrations this year when the defending champions on board LawConnect won the race in the early hours of yesterday morning, as it came about 24 hours after two sailors died on separate boats in sail boom accidents two hours apart on a storm-ravaged first night of the race. LawConnect, a 100-foot super maxi skippered by Australian tech millionaire Christian Beck, sailed up the River Derwent at just after 2:30am.
Liverpool on Thursday powered seven points clear at the top of the Premier League as the title favorites survived a scare in their 3-1 win against Leicester City, while Bruno Fernandes was sent off in Manchester United’s dismal 2-0 defeat against Wolverhampton Wanderers. Erling Haaland missed a penalty as crisis-torn Manchester City failed to end their dismal run with a 1-1 draw against Everton, but it was United’s travails and Liverpool’s remarkable run that took center-stage. Arne Slot’s side were shocked by Jordan Ayew’s early strike at Anfield, but the leaders recovered their composure to equalize just before the interval through Cody
Elena Rybakina’s Kazakhstan yesterday dumped defending champions Germany out of the United Cup with world No. 2 Alexander Zverev sidelined by an arm injury barely a week away from the Australian Open. The upset in Perth sent the Kazakhs into the semi-finals of the 18-nation tournament. In Sydney, women’s world No. 2 Iga Swiatek led Poland into the last eight by winning a rematch of her 2023 French Open final against Karolina Muchova of the Czech Republic. Britain also progressed to the quarter-finals with Katie Boulter’s dominant 6-2, 6-1 victory over Australia’s Olivia Gadecki enough to guarantee they won their group. The US and
RSS