Rafael Nadal won his 400th clay court match on the ATP World Tour as he eased past fourth seed David Goffin 6-4 6-0 to set up a final showdown with Greek teenager Stefanos Tsitsipas.
The early stages of the match were nervy from the world number one as Goffin brought intensity and aggressive shots from the first ball. The early aggression paid off for the Belgian as he took an early 2-0 lead in the first set as he looked to win his first clay court match over the Spaniard.
However Nadal began to find his rhythm after losing concentration in the opening two games and used his power as well as his spin to force errors out of Goffin. The world number one broke to love after securing his first hold of the contest, to level the set at 2-2. After some comfortable service holds, Nadal improved his game when it mattered as some breath-taking backhands secured the break and the set in the tenth game.
After taking the opener 6-4, it was one way traffic as the 10 time champion used a mix of finesse and power to take advantage of a wary Goffin. An example below shows that Nadal not only won points from the baseline but was also dominant when coming to the net against the world number 10:
Nadal(š„@TennisTV ) pic.twitter.com/dG5NV4bp2T
— doublefault28 (@doublefault28) April 28, 2018
The Spaniard secured his third break of the set as he convincingly eased past Goffin in 1 hour and 23 minutes to book his place into an 11th Barcelona final. The win also means that Nadal has made more history by winning an incredible 400th match on clay and a 44th consecutive set on the red dirt.Ā
After the match, Nadal was happy about the match he played, suggesting it was the best match he played this week, “I played I think my best match of the tournament so far, no doubt about that. It was a great first set in my opinion. Both of us played at a very high level.”
Nadal will look to keep up his 100% record in Barcelona finals as he plays dangerous Greek teenager, Stefanos Tsitsipas tomorrow. The 19 year old edged out Pablo Carreno Busta 7-5 6-3 in a tight contest which lasted 1 hour and 35 minutes. The win means that Tsitsipas is the first Greek to reach an ATP final sinceĀ Nicholas Kalogeropoulos in 1973.
Tomorrow’s final will be the first meeting between Nadal and Tsitispas, with the Spaniard chasing an 11th Barcelona title and to keep his place at the top of the world rankings. While his 19 year old opponent is looking to win his first ever ATP World Tour title.