Rafael Nadal punched his ticket into the title match at the Mubadala World Tennis Championship by winning an all-Spanish affair with David Ferrer 6-3, 6-7(4), 6-3 on Friday afternoon. Nadal needed two hours and 23 minutes to advance.
Not unlike their recent three-setter at the World Tour Finals, this Abu Dhabi showdown featured mostly high-quality tennis and plenty of entertaining rallies. Nadal especially impressed throughout the first set and in seizing a break advantage in the second. In fact, the 14-time major champion twice led by a break in set two only to see Ferrer roar from behind.
Ferrer eventually took the second in a tiebreaker after 68 minutes of back-and-forth competition, but Nadal proved to be too strong in the decider. The second seed gave back a break on yet another occasional, but he finally–and decisively–consolidated one more scalp of Ferrer’s serve by holding at 5-3. A down-the-line forehand winner ended the proceedings in Nadal’s favor.
Milos Raonic joined Nadal in the championship match by beating Stan Wawrinka 7-5, 7-5 in one hour and 30 minutes.
Raonic and Wawrinka took turns failing to close out sets. Wawrinka led by a break in the opener before getting broken twice in succession. It was pretty much all the Canadian the entire way after he trailed 5-2 in the first. Only when he toed the proverbial finish line at 5-4 in the second did Raonic show signs of cracking. Although he dropped serve, the world No. 14 broke back for 6-5 and made no mistake with the match on his racket a second time.
Nadal will be looking for his third triumph at this lucrative event (previously won in 2009-10 and 2010-11) when he faces Raonic on Saturday.
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Mary,
You merely want to argue for the sake of it, which is why I try to avoid replying to your posts.
Even Rafa used the term “mental problem” so I guess he’s accusing himself?
Wowee wowa that’s quite the accusation!
That must mean that Rafa is not a true Rafan.
I’ll warn Benny!