ROME: World No. 1 and top seed Rafael Nadal progressed to the semifinals of the ATP Rome Masters claycourt tournament after a grueling 6-3, 6-3 victory against sixth seed Fernando Verdasco yesterday.
The scoreline did not do justice to a keenly contested match that lasted 1hr 50min and in which Verdasco had more than enough chances to cause an upset.
The final statistics told the story of a match in which the former three-time champion here Nadal took his opportunities while Verdasco let his slip by.
Verdasco hit 20 winners to just six by Nadal but made more than twice as many unforced errors — 41 to just 20 from the world’s best player.
And both men forced six break points throughout the match but while Nadal converted four of his, Verdasco managed only one break.
The 25-year-old sixth seed started badly, double faulting to hand Nadal a break in the opening game.
However, he hit straight back as Nadal played a dreadful service game and was broken to love.
The top seed soon clicked into gear, though, and broke Verdasco twice more to take the set.
The main difference in the opener was that Nadal was massacring Verdasco’s second serve, winning 78 percent of the points when his compatriot missed his first service.
In the second set Verdasco had plenty of opportunities to get his nose in front but he missed three break point chances in the first game and two more at 2-2.
Even so, he was trading wilfully with Nadal from the back of the court and but for his high unforced error count he looked capable of beating the king of clay.
But at 4-3 to Nadal, Verdasco missed two simple volleys as he gifted his compatriot a break, despite having led 40-15.
He called for the trainer at the change of ends and his knee seemed to be giving him some pain, so it was unsurprising that he wilted easily in the final game.
Nadal took his win streak on clay to 28 matches since he was beaten here a year ago in the second round by Juan Carlos Ferrero.
Dementieva, Kuznetsova
in all-Russia clash
In Stuttgart, Germany, Russia’s Elena Dementieva and Svetlana Kuznetsova will face each other in the semifinals of Stuttgart’s WTA tournament today after both came through yesterday’s quarterfinals.
While Dementieva struggled to see off France’s Marion Bartoli in her quarterfinal, Kuznetsova took just over an hour to beat Argentina’s Gisela Dulko 6-3, 6-2 and will now play her compatriot for a place in Sunday’s final.
“I played great today,” beamed fifth-seed Kuznetsova.
“I was successful with my shots and I am getting better — it’s great to be in the semi-finals.” The Russian pair have met each other nine times on the WTA tour with Kuznetsova leading the series 5-4.
Earlier, Olympic champion Dementieva booked her place in the last four with a hard-fought 6-2, 4-6, 6-3 win over Bartoli.
The second-seeded Russian needed two hours and 17 minutes to see off Bartoli who fought her way back after a slow start to threaten the gold-medal winner from Beijing. “It was my best match of the tournament so far, I feel like I am really playing much better,” said Dementieva, ranked third in the world.
“Marion is a good player and she served well all game, it was an emotional match for both of us.
