Saturday, April 28, 2018

Rafael Nadal Claims 400th Clay-Court Win


Rafael Nadal reached his 11th Barcelona Open final with a straight-sets win over David Goffin
Rafael Nadal will face Greek teenager Stefanos Tsitsipas in Sunday's Barcelona Open final after claiming his 400th career clay-court victory becoming the fourth player in Open era.

The Spaniard defeated world number 10 David Goffin of Belgium extending his unbeaten run on clay to 43 matches, Nadal overcame an early scare to reach his 11th Barcelona Open final after he was broken in the opening game of the match but responded in style, the world number one reeled off 12 of final 14 games for a 6-4 6-0 win in one hour and 22 minutes.

Victory also meant Nadal becomes just the fourth player in the Open era to win 400 matches on clay, The defending champion will face Tsitsipas on Sunday, the world number 63, who continued the most successful week of his career by beating Spanish fifth seed Pablo Carreno Busta 7-5 6-3, becoming the first Greek player to reach an ATP Tour final since Nicholas Kalogeropoulos in Des Moines in 1973.

No comments: