Nadal Bags Fourth Straight Barcelona Open

Top-seeded Rafael Nadal defeated fellow Spaniard David Ferrer 6-1, 4-6, 6-1 yesterday to win his fourth straight Barcelona Open. The title was Nadal’s second of the year and 25th of his career. Just a month ago, the Spaniard lost in the final of the Sony Ericsson Open in Miami to Nikolay Davydenko and expressed his frustration at the delayed start of the European clay-court season. The Masters Series tournament on the hard courts in Key Biscayne had been pushed back a week because of a television contract and Nadal wasn’t happy. “If you see the calendar, that is unbelievable,” Nadal said at the time. “It’s not fair.” Since then it’s been nothing but happy times on the slow red clay of Europe as the Spaniard has won all 10 of his matches and bagged two titles, also winning at Monte Carlo last week. “I’m very happy with this win,” said Nadal. “Having won won four times in Monte Carlo and four times in Barcelona is very special for me. It was a tough match, but I was mentally strong during the whole game and kept fighting. As David started playing better in the second set I tried to stay calm and focus on my game.” The Mallorcan improved to 6-3 against his Valencia-based compatriot. “Rafa had a very good start today,” said the second-seeded Ferrer. “I came back playing good tennis in the second set, but again in the final set I kept fighting but he was just playing too good and he deserves to win. I don’t know what you have to do to beat him on clay. Don’t ask me?” Not to worry, David. No one else knows what to do, either. Nadal has won 103 of his last 104 matches on clay, and improved to 20-1 in clay- court finals. The Clay Master moves on to Rome this week for the Italian Open where he is the three-time defending champion.