Nadal thwarts off stiff challenge from David Ferrer

The Manolo Santana at Madrid today saw two of its countrymen face each other in an intriguing quarter final clash. Both donned headbands, both were favoured by the home crowd and both are experts on the clay court. Friends and compatriots, Rafael Nadal and David Ferrer, the no.5 and no.4 ranked players of the world, entered the court to enthrall the home audience with some high class tennis.

With the players’ near and dear ones occupying the front seats, the Manolo Santana packed with enthusiastic home crowd and a few other celebrities, the match began with Ferrer serving for the first game. Serves were held until the 4th game. It was then that Ferrer, benefiting from Nadal’s errors, took a 40-0 lead on his opponent’s serve. A determined Nadal fought hard to level at deuce, but failed to hold serve as Ferrer squandered the advantage and won the game, taking a 3-1 lead. Nadal avenged the break of his serve with a reciprocal break in the 7th game (4-4). Ferrer held a set point on Nadal’s serve at 5-4 and converted that point to pocket the first set.

The games ran long, the balls bounced slow, but the two gritty Spaniards never wavered. The second set witnessed half a dozen breaks of serve, shared equally between the two. Perhaps one would be reminded of another all-Spaniard clash which took place earlier this year. Unlike that quarter final clash, this was a more interesting, engaging and power packed match. The set ultimately resulted in a tiebreaker which Nadal won 7-3

The third set saw a debilitated Ferrer losing all the three of his service games and a rejuvenated Nadal holding an equal number of service games to rout his opponent 6-0.

Prior to the commencement of play, a commentator remarked that perhaps Ferrer would be embarrassed of his ranking. Whether he felt so or not, he was determined. His determination, though never translated to victory, saw him win the first set and trouble Nadal as much as he could before he ran out of fire in the third set. One cannot deny that Ferrer’s game today was impressive, though not enough to deny Nadal a semi final berth. High on confidence, he will be looking forward to better performances of his on clay this year.

Nadal, the victor, has already set his sight on the trophy. He faces no real challenge on the way to victory here at the Spanish Capital.