Breaking Down Rafael Nadal’s Title Run at the 2014 Rio Open

By
at Internationaled.org

Published: February 26, 2014

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Rafael Nadal added yet another clay-court title to his resume, after he defeated Alexandr Dolgopolov in the Rio Open final 6-3, 7-6(3). It was the King of Clay's 43rd title on clay and 62nd title overall.

  

Early Rounds

Rio was Nadal's first tournament since his back injury at the Australian Open. In the first round, he squared off against clay-court specialist Daniel Gimeno-Traver. It was a tricky first round opponent for Nadal after taking time off to recover. 

However, he was able to pull out the win 6-3, 7-5. Here is what Nadal had to say after his first match, according to USATODAY:

"Daniel is a specialist on clay, so for me it was a great match after so much time off after the final in Australia because of the back problems, I practiced very little. So I was happy to get back, and get back with a victory."

Nadal clearly needed to get a warm-up match in before finding his groove. He cruised through his next two matches against Albert Montanes and Joao Sousa—dropping only four games in both matches combined. 

 

Semifinal 

Nadal faced off against Pablo Andujar in the semifinals. Andujar came out with the game plan to attack on everything and was executing that plan perfectly. 

Andujar jumped out to an early lead, taking the first set 6-2. Of course Nadal came fighting back, as he always does, taking the second set 6-3.

The third set was a back and forth battle leading up to an epic tiebreaker. Both men fought off two match points, including a ridiculous half volley by Andujar when he was down 7-8. However, it was ultimately Nadal who came out victorious, 2-6, 6-3, 7-6(10).

Andujar almost pulled off the upset, but Nadal stepped up his game when he needed to most. Even though he actually lost more points in the match (106-108), he won the key pressure...
Article Source: Bleacher Report - Tennis

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