TENNIS – Rafa Nadal (3) beat Grigor Dimitrov (10) 6-3 6-4 in one hour and 49 minutes in the first quarterfinal of the Madrid Mutua Open. Nadal will face Tomas Berdych (6) who had to save a match point against John Isner (16) in order to move through to the next round. In the other semifinal Andy Murray (2) beat Milos Raonic (5) to set up a semifinal against Kei Nishikori (4) Diego Sampaolo
Nadal broke serve in the third game of the first set but Dimitrov broke straight back at love in the fourth game. Nadal broke yet again in the next game before holding serve for a 4-2 lead. Nadal maintained the pressure on the Bulgarian who had to serve to stay in the set at 3-5. Dimitrov soon found himself down 15-40. He saved those two set points but could not the third. He hit a forehand into the net and the first set was over after 50 minutes.
Dimitrov was not deterred as he broke serve early in the 2nd set and pulled away at 3-1. Nadal clawed his way back into the set to draw level by breaking serve in the sixth game for 3-3. However, Dimitrov still had a chance to serve for the set when he earned himself a break point in the crucial 9th game. However, Nadal denied him the opportunity by holding serve for 5-4 and put the pressure back on Dimitrov to serve to stay in the match. The unrelenting pressure proved to be too much Dimitrov as he double faulted to give Nadal a match point. Nadal quickly converted as Dimitrov’s forehand went wide.
Nadal will be bidding to reach his seventh final at this tournament which he has won four times.
“I played a complete match, apart from two games in the second set when my intensity dipped a little”, said Nadal
In tomorrow’s semifinal Nadal will face Berdych who fought back from one set down before saving one match point at 5-6 in the tie-break of the second set against John Isner.
Berdych went down a break at 1-3 before wasting a 0-40 lead in the next game. Isner never looked back and clinched the first set with 6-3. In the 2nd set, both men held serve and forced it to a decisive tiebreaker. Berdych went up 3-1 but Isner drew level at 4-4 before earning a match point at 6-5 which Berdych saved with his trademark monster serve. Berdych took a 7-6 lead in the breaker but Isner again drew level with his 21st ace. Berdych hit a forehand volley winner to go up 8-7. He converted on the set point when Isner’s crosscourt forehand sailed wide. He forced the match to a third set when Isner hit his crosscourt forehand wide. Berdych took the 2nd set 7-6(7).
The third set was a near repeat of the 2nd set with Isner going up 6-5 and looking to take the momentum in the 12th game to break for the match. However, Berdych again forced the tiebreaker but this time around, he was utterly dominant. Berdych closed out the match by taking the breaker 7-1 points with a forehand passing shot. Berdych clinched the win 3-6 7-6 (9-7) 7-6 (7-1) after two hours and nine minutes. The Czech hit 11 aces and won 86 percent of his first serve serves.
Nadal and Berdych will renew their rivalry in a re-match of this year’s Australian Open quarterfinals.
Murray, who had lost three of his five previous matches against Raonic, saved all five break points he faced in this encounter and broke once in each set to give him the win 6-4 7-5. Raonic was not at his best as he is clearly dealing with a foot injury.
Murray, who won the Madrid title in 2008 when the tournament was held indoors, has qualified for his 23rd semifinal in a Master 1000 tournament. Raonic never give up despite the foot injury which forced him to retire from Monte-Carlo and will sideline him from next week’s Internazionali d’Italia.
“I did not know he was injured before we came out but I saw early on that he was struggling,” said Murray.
In Saurday’s semifinal Murray will face Nishikori who capitalized on five of his six break points and hit 23 winners for his 6-4 6-2 win after 72 minutes in the last match of the evening. Nishikori has extended his winning streak on clay to 8 consecutive matches. this year. Nishikori led 7-4 in his previous head-to-head matches against Ferrer and won their only match on clay last year in the Madrid semifinal.
Ferrer broke serve in the opening game and held his serve for 2-0 but Nishikori broke back in the third game. Nishikori broke again in the seventh game. When Nishikori served for the set, he faced two break points but Ferrer did not convert any as Nishikori raised the level of his serve and won four consecutive points to close out the set.
Despite a low percentage of first serve points Nishikori dominated the second set. Ferrer managed to hold his serve only in his last service game.
