World number two Rafael Nadal trounces Almagro to enter Roland Garros semis

World number two Rafael Nadal trounces Almagro to enter Roland Garros semis

King of Clay Rafael Nadal dumped his 12th seeded compatriopt, Nicolas Almagro, in straight sets at the French Open 2012 on Wednesday. He jolted down a 7-6(4), 6-2, 6-3 victory against his fellow citizen to cruise into the semi-finals at this second of the
four Grand Slam event held in Paris, France.
Seeded second in the tournament, Nadal got the better of his fellow citizen for the eight straight times at this prestigious clay court event. After stealing the show in two hours and 46 minutes, Nadal not only improved to an 8-0 FedEx ATP Head 2 Head record
against the lower seed but also inched closer towards his seventh Roland Garros title here.
"You cannot expect to win an easy match in [the] quarter-finals of a Grand Slam, [the] quarter-finals of Roland Garros," said Nadal. [It] was a tough one, but I am through and I am very happy."
The opening set saw both stars pushing each other to their limits. Nadal hit fewer winners and nudged up a lower first serve share of 68 per cent in contrast with Almagro’s 72 per cent. However, he stayed focused and not only plucked his entire serves convincingly
but dominated in the tie-breaker to pull out the opener with a 7-6(4) score line in almost an hour.
Nadal lifted his game in the proceeding set and kept his serve to love in the opening game. After Almagro held his serve in the second game, the higher seed stroke out the following three games in a row and leaped to a 4-1 lead. He then pocketed the last two
games and clicked the set by winning six games to two.
The Spanish number one kept momentum rolling into the last set and swiftly swiped his entire serves after brushing off all three breakpoints he encountered. He got the breakthrough in the eighth game and registered a 6-3 success.
The 26-year-old won his 50th match at the French Open and will next confront another compatriot, David Ferrer.
The former world number one, Nadal, reflected of his next match-up, "We [have] played each other a lot of times. His game bothers everybody because he’s one of the best players in the world on every surface – on clay especially. He’s a complete player. It’s
very difficult to play against him, because his movement is probably the best in the world and he’s able to hit the ball very early a lot of the time."

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Posted by Awais Ahmed on Jun 6 2012. Filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry