Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic have battled their ways through the Rome draw and are now one round away from a blockbuster title match. Up first for the top two players in the world are respective Saturday semifinal showdowns against Grigor Dimitrov and Milos Raonic.
(1) Rafael Nadal vs. (12) Grigor Dimitrov
Nadal and Dimitrov will be going head-to-head for the fifth time in their careers and for the second time this season when they collide in the semifinals of the Internazionali BNL d’Italia on Saturday.
All four of their previous meetings have gone Nadal’s way, but he has never defeated Dimitov in straight sets. They most recently faced each other at the Australian Open, where Nadal survived a memorable four-setter 3-6, 7-6(3), 7-6(7), 6-2. Their only previous clay-court clash came last spring in Monte-Carlo, where Nadal prevailed 6-2, 2-6, 6-4.
The world No. 1 has already been required to work harder this week than perhaps at any clay-court tournament of his career–especially of the best-of-three variety. He has spent a whopping eight hours and 42 minutes on the court in three matches, needing three sets to get past Gilles Simon, Mikhail Youzhny, and Andy Murray. Nadal is looking to win back-to-back titles on the slow stuff, having triumphed in Madrid after losing in the quarterfinals of both Monte-Carlo and Barcelona.
Dimitrov celebrated his 23rd birthday on Friday by reaching the semis in both singles and doubles (with Lukas Rosol). His singles victory came via second-set retirement from Tommy Haas after Dimitrov had won the first set 6-2. The Bulgarian preceded that with victories over Edouard Roger-Vasselin, Ivo Karlovic, and Tomas Berdych. Dimitrov is 26-7 for the year and projected to rise to another career-high mark of No. 12 in the world on Monday even if he loses this one to Nadal.
Given Nadal’s fatigue and their past history of competitive matches, it would seem like another three-setter is in the cards between these two men. However, Rome’s top seed is so battle-tested and also confident in the most important moments of matches that he just may find a way to get this done in straights. Either way, it should be another wildly entertaining contest.
Pick: Nadal in 2 losing more than 8 games
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