Rafael Nadal will kick off his Paris campaign on Wednesday. Standing in his way of the third round is fellow Spaniard Marcel Granollers.
Rafael Nadal and Marcel Granollers will be going head-to-head for the third time in their careers when they clash in round two of the BNP Paribas Masters on Wednesday. Nadal has dominated both of their previous encounters; 6-1, 6-4 at the 2012 Indian Wells Masters and 6-1, 6-1 just a few weeks later on the clay courts of Rome.
The top-ranked Spaniard is wrapping up what has been a remarkable season and he is a title in Paris away from clinching year-end world No. 1. Nadal’s 68-5 record includes 10 titles–four on hard courts. After triumphing in Indian Wells this spring, Nadal won Montreal, Cincinnati, and the U.S. Open in succession. His fall swing has been solid but unspectacular, with losses to Novak Djokovic in the Beijing final and to Juan Martin Del Potro in the Shanghai semis. This is only Nadal’s fourth appearance in Bercy and first since 2009.
“I’m excited to be back in Paris,” the top seed assured. “Paris is a very special city for me. Probably the most special city in the world. It’s a great tournament.”
It has already been a decent tournament for Granollers, who scored an impressive hard-court victory over Dmitry Tursunov via a 6-4, 6-4 decision on Tuesday. The world No. 39 is 27-23 for the year and trying to make a late push for 2014 Australian Open seeding. He is an even 3-3 since advancing to the fourth round of the U.S. Open.
As past results suggest, this is not a good matchup for Granollers. The underdog Spaniard does not have the necessary firepower with which to trouble Nadal and he likes to end points at the net. This plays right into the hands of the favorite, who is a passing-shot expert off both wings.
Pick: Nadal in 2 losing 7 games or fewer
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All’s well that ends well!
Well done, Rafa!
RT @SharkoTennis: “.@RafaelNadal d countryman @M_Granollers 75 75 @bnppmasters & 30th match win on hard cts this yr. 1st time since ’07 30+ wins on hard, clay.”
Very nice win for Rafa. This match gave him some time to work off a bit of rust and get his shots going. An easy match wouldn’t have been good. This was just enough for Rafa to get used to the feel of the court and get his game going.
The next match is going to be tough. JJ is defending a big chunk of points, having reached the final last year. This is a court that suits his game. The good news is that Rafa’s serve was really good in this match. He’s going to need that if he wants to do well here.
Rafa/Janowicz are on last tomorrow……..exactly 24 hrs from now,
From the twitterverse…
Outdoors, Nadal has the best win-loss % in history, .859. Indoors he’s 38th on the all-time list at .659.
I don’t have high expectations for Rafa in Paris indoors. Anything is gravy at this point for him this year.
He barely beat Groanollers 7-5, 7-5 today. If he gets past JJ indoors, I think he should make the final.
Speaking of, after said win, Rafa’s magic number to clinch is now just 580.
Vamos GOAT!!!
hawkeye63@October 30, 2013 at 8:13 pm
—Indoors he’s 38th on the all-time list at .659.—
The full list:
http://www.atpworldtour.com/Reliability-Zone/Reliability-Indoor-Career-List.aspx
Hawkeye. C’mon. He didn’t JUST win. He was playing himself in gradually but upped his level to order when he needed to in both sets with the score at 5:5.
The unforced error count was mostly Rafa getting accustomed to the surface.