Rafael Nadal won his 17th Masters championship on Sunday in the Rome Masters, defeating David Ferrer 7-5, 6-2. Nadal has defeated Ferrer the last 7 times they’ve met, and few were surprised by the win since this was Ferrer’s first time in a Masters final.
This marks the 4th time Nadal has won here in the last 6 years, and ties him with Andre Agassi’s record of 17 Masters Series wins. There’s little doubt that he’ll soon exceed Agassi’s record since he’s only 23 years old, and Agassi achieved win number 17 when he was 34 and nearing the end of his pro career. Roger Federer, the #1 player in the world, is only 1 behind with 16 Masters wins and is widely expected to exceed Agassi’s record, too.
The last year hasn’t been easy for Nadal. Just 2 weeks ago, he won his 16th Masters title in Monte Carlo, which was his first win in 11 months. He says that he didn’t play as well in Rome as he did in Monte Carlo, but that winning was the important thing. He’s undefeated on clay this season with 10 wins under his belt. In Rome, he won his semifinals matches against Ernests Gulbis after a bit of a battle over 3 sets, but that didn’t seem to wear him down. Gulbis eliminated Federer in round two, so he was clearly a threat to Nadal. These recent wins could mark Nadal’s comeback to win the French Open again, a feat he managed four years in a row. His streak was ended last year by Robin Soderling.
He’s only lost once in Rome, 2 years ago, to Juan Carlos Ferrero, when he was distracted by a blister on his foot and unable to keep pace with the other player. Despite that loss, Nadal holds the record as the only player to win at Foro Italico more than 3 times.
Despite his loss, fellow Spaniard Ferrer said he was happy with how he played, and said that it was difficult to play against Nadal. He also blamed the rain for making the court “slower” and pointed at that as one of his major problems. The rain did cause the court to become slippery and they had to compensate for the wind. The rain actually caused 2 separate delays, once for almost 2 hours.
Nadal played aggressively from the beginning, with an hour-long rain delay coming in on Ferrer’s serve during the first set with the score at 4-4. Ferrer immediately took the lead when they returned but Nadal took control and broke Ferrer’s serving game when after multiple volleys back and forth, Ferrer’s return clipped the net.
In the second set, a rain delay went for 1 hour and 45 minutes and some of the more than 10,000 fans left. After the delay, Ferrer double-faulted, and Nadal controlled the match from then on out. Ferrer ended with a total of 5 double-faults and 15 winners. Nadal won 24 and had no double-faults during the entire match.
Photo Credits: d ha rm e sh
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