Rafael Nadal recovers from a set and a break deficit to beat Fabio Fognini on Friday in Beijing. Nadal will go up against Tomas Berdych in the semifinals.
Rafael Nadal remained undefeated on hard courts in 2013, and he did it the hard way.
Nadal also kept alive his bid to regain the No. 1 world ranking this week at the China Open with a 2-6, 6-4, 6-1 win over Fabio Fognini during quarterfinal action on Friday afternoon. The Spaniard stormed back from a 6-2, 3-0 deficit to prevail in two hours and 15 minutes.
This one could not have started in a more inauspicious way for Nadal, who banged up his left knee on the very first point of the match. Fognini quickly held at love then broke his opponent in the second game of the match. Just like that, the world No. 19–who had destroyed Lleyton Hewitt 6-0, 6-2 in round two–was off to the races.
Fognini broke Nadal’s serve three times in the opening set and soon surged to a 3-0 advantage in the second. The Italian had two break points for a 4-0 lead, but Nadal came up with a clutch forehand winner at 15-40 and a big serve at 30-40. That proved to be somewhat of a turning point even though Fognini recovered from that game to eventually hold for 4-1. Still invigorated from his service game at 0-3, Nadal raised his level and wrapped up the middle frame of play on a five-game winning streak.
While the world No. 2 picked up the pace, Fognini lost his way and could barely find the court with his forehand in the latter half of set two and throughout the third. The underdog struggled both mentally and physically in the decider and never showed any signs of being able to shake of the disappointment of failing to cross the finish line. Nadal won the last five games of the match and his sixth break of the day closed it out in style.
“It’s true that his level of tennis for a long time in the match was very, very high,” the U.S. Open champion said of Fognini. “When you are playing against an opponent playing well, the thing that you have to do is try to push him to the limit and try to make him play very well for a very, very long time. That’s something that I was not doing for the first set and a half.
“Then the situation changed a little bit. I played a little bit better, played with a little bit more rhythm, and he felt that he needed to play another shot to win the point.”
Next up for Nadal is Tomas Berdych, who dismissed John Isner 7-5, 6-2. If Nadal wins on Saturday, he is assured of overtaking Novak Djokovic at No. 1 regardless of the tournament’s ultimate outcome. Djokovic is facing Richard Gasquet in Saturday’s second semifinal.
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