April 26, 2009

Ace Spanish tennis star Rafa Nadal, has once again proved that he is the undeniable king of the Barcelona Tournament after successfully beating his Spanish compatriot and friend David Ferrer in straight sets by 6-2, 7-5 in today’s final.

“I never imagined anything like this. To win again here in Barcelona, in my home club and at such an important tournament is incredible.”

“This has been my best match of the year so far on clay,” said Rafa after the match. “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.”

As to David, he thought “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.”

"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."

Rafael crushed the No.13 player in world in just over an hour and 45 minutes of play to become the first player to win the clay court tournament for the fifth successive time. The World No.1 won the match by playing some competitive tennis and will take home with him the precious ‘Conde de Godó’ trophy, together with the satisfaction of achieving an amazing feat.

The victory comes on the back of Rafa securing five consecutive Monte Carlo titles a week ago as the 22-year-old's clay dominance shows no signs of slowing ahead of the French Open and a possible fifth there as well.

THE MATCH

The top seed did suffer a minor blemish as he lost his first three service games of the week, the second set being more competitive as the first four games went against the server.

But once he gathered himself together, the mighty Rafa finally secured a break for 6-5 and served out victory in one and three quarter hours on his second match point.

Rafa will have no time to celebrate as he heads directly for the Rome Masters which begins on Monday. A year ago, a patently exhausted Nadal lost in his opening second round match to Juan Carlos Ferrero.

ROME MASTERS SERIES OFFICIAL DRAW

On Saturday, the official draw ceremony for the Masters Series tournament in Rome took place and if there are no surprises, these could be Rafa’s opponents for the next week:

First round: Bye

Second Round: He will have to play the winner of the match between Italy’s Andreas Seppi or American, Sam Querrey.

Third round: James Blake or  Robin Soderling

Quarterfinal: Ernest Gulbis, Igor Andreev, Fernando Verdasco. Richard Gasquet, Nicolas Almagro or Jo-Wilfred Tsonga

Semifinal: Andy Murray, Nikolay Davydenko or Fernando Gonzalez.

Vamos Rafa!

Photos: Special thanks to Manuel "Queima" Queimadelos