Relentless Rafa marches to an eighth Barcelona crown

Rafael Nadal beat Nicolas Almagro for the tenth straight time, recovering from an early flutter with characteristic grit to clinch his eighth Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell title with a relatively simple 6-4 6-3 victory in an hour and 30 minutes on the Pista Central at the Real Club de Tenis in Barcelona. A couple of months ago, there were questions swirling over the ability of Nadal to make an impact after returning from a seven month layoff due to a knee injury.

Nadal has answered most of these questions with an emphatic fourth title in six tournaments since his return to the Tour in February. The victory marked a 54^th career title for Nadal and a 39^th trophy on his favourite red clay. In doing so, Nadal became the only man this year to have already won four events. The indefatigable Spaniard has also made at least the finals in each of his appearances since returning from a lengthy absence due to a recurrent knee injury.

A couple of backhand cross court winners handed the initiative to Almagro at 15-40 in the first game on the Nadal serve. The world No.5 sailed a forehand wide to gift a break at the start of the set, just as was the case against Milos Raonic in the semis. The big difference on this occasion was that the second break in the set did not belong to Nadal.

Nadal found the net with a sliced backhand to offer another break point in the third game and Almagro took it eagerly with a forehand cross court winner to assume control of the set at 3-0. It would only be a few minutes before Almagro learnt that his grasp of the situation turned out to be rather too transient.

In his typically resilient style, Nadal started to repair the situation without the least concern for the situation. Almagro helped his opponent by floundering with his backhand twice in a row to slip to 0-40 in the fourth game. Almagro saved the first two, but Nadal ran past the ball to take it on the forehand and smack a crisp down the line winner to snatch one of those two breaks.

Almagro ran out of savings in the bank, when he produced an untimely double fault to surrender the second break as Nadal clawed back to 3-3. Serving in the ninth game, Nadal was tested again by a determined Almagro. But despite earning three break points to serve for the set, Almagro failed to convert any. It was partly also due to some big serving from Nadal, who pulled out an ace and a service winner to save the moment.

Serving to stay in the set at 4-5, Almagro chose an inopportune moment to make a costly forehand error. At 30-30, with his nerves jangling, Almagro rattled the net with a cross court forehand to offer set point to Nadal. The King of Clay showed Almagro how it is done, with a thumping forehand cross court winner to clinch the set. Nadal had won six of the last seven games, clearly occupying acres of space inside the scarred Almagro head.

Nadal held serve with ease to begin the first game of the second set, before finding himself seated on three break points in the second game. The 12^th ranked Almagro showed great resilience to win five points in a row to prove that he was not nearly deflated from that painful loss in the first set. But then, Rafa’s ability to grind relentlessly can sap the last ounce of energy from the best prepared men.

Almagro was serving with a degree of comfort at 40-15 in the fourth game when the counter punching abilities of Nadal rattled Almagro into going for extra in search of the elusive winner. In the bargain, Almagro ended up making a series of forehand errors to gift-wrap a break of serve to his formidable opponent.

A comfortable hold in the next game took Rafa to 4-1, within a couple of games of his eighth title in nine years in the Catalonian capital. Almagro clung to slim hope, holding a tight eighth game to force Nadal to serve out for the championship. Rafa earned his first match point when Almagro failed to control his return against a serve that spun and kicked at him with vicious ferocity.

Nadal did not need any more as he struck with raw power on the next point to push Almagro deep behind the baseline. Almagro, stuck in defence, could only send back a loopy response that was met with a disdainful smash from the middle of the court to end the match.

Nadal’s weapons against Almagro were his constant companions – unshakeable faith in his own game, despite trailing by two breaks in the first serve was one of those demonstrable tools. The Mallorcan also ran wide off his deuce to bring his forehand into play. It also helped that Nadal never hesitated to push back his opponent with loathing power before bringing the drop shot into play with telling effect.

Another factor that played into Nadal’s hands was the incessant drizzle midway through the first set, just when Almagro was painting the lines with some ferocious winners. The moisture made the balls heavier and the pace slower, helping Nadal gain more time to construct the points. Almagro sought the umpire to suspend play at a point, but the referee would have nothing of his plea and that affected Almagro during a crucial phase of the match.

With only two key tournaments remaining in the run up to Roland Garros, the injury woes of Nadal are a long forgotten topic. Rafa has been building up nicely ahead of his favourite Grand Slam tournament and with each passing match, it appears that the only man who could mount a meaningful hurdle in the path of an eighth French Open title is a certain Novak Djokovic. The event in Madrid is next, where Roger Federer will return from two months of working on his game in an effort to ensure he remains equally relevant.