After his semifinal performance yesterday there were few who thought Rafa Nadal, who said his knee pain had been worse, would beat David Nalbandian and claim the Brasil title. There were even fewer who thought he would beat Nalbandian comfortably.
Nadal cruised to victory in his second tournament back since a 7 month injury time out, winning 6-2, 6-3.
Nadal, who last won the Brasil tournament in 2005 was understandably delighted with the result. Read more
Posted in Brasil, David Nalbandian, Injury, Media, Rafael Nadal
Anyone who thinks two finals in two weeks means that Rafa Nadal is close to his normal form is delusional or not watching carefully.
Nadal, ignoring the tennis, seems currently to be deprived of one of his greatest gifts – his ferocious focus and intensity. He simply seems like a flat version of himself.
Sure this one legged (to say he has two functioning legs is a stretch) version of the Spaniard is still winning and making finals but he’s got nothing on the King of Clay he used to be and it seems to be finding Rafa a long time to get in touch with that person. Read more
Posted in Brasil, David Nalbandian, Injury, King of Clay, Martin Alund, Rafael Nadal
Nico Almagro has won his second Brasil Open title, last winning in 2008, after beating Alexandr Dolgopolov 6-3, 7-6. Almagro, who’s serve can be deadly accurate, was on song and didn’t face a single break point during the match. In fact Almagro has been in such good form all tournament that he has only dropped one set.It was Dolgopolov’s first tour level final Read more
Posted in Alexandr Dolgopolov, Brasil, Nicolas Almagro
Tommy Robredo, last weeks Santiago winner, has started his campaign in Brasil with a 6-3, 6-7, 6-3 win over Fabio Fognini. Tommy has now beaten Fognini on the three occasions they’ve played each other. The win was also Tommy’s sixth consecutive win.
Robredo had a chance to close out the match in straight sets when he tried to serve for the set at 5-4 before he was broken by the Italian Stallion. Despite allowing Fognini back into the match, Tommy raced of to a 3-0 lead in the third set and managed to continue holding serve to take the match after two hours and 31 minutes.
Posted in Brasil, Fabio Fognini, Tommy Robredo
