Rafael Nadal retained his title at the 1000 Rome Masters by winning the final 7-5 6-2 to David Ferrer in a final that was halted twice by rain.
Rafael Nadal retained his title at the 1000 Rome Masters by winning the final 7-5 6-2 to David Ferrer in a final that was halted twice by rain. The title, his fifth in six years in the Italian capital, allowing you to match the 17 Masters of Andre Agassi.
How to beat Rafael Nadal on clay? The question is difficult to solve. In Rome, two men sought to answer very differently in the outcome of the tournament. The emerging Ernests Gulbis in the semifinals proposed a game with little transitions, which attempted to define his tennis live, talented and unpredictable. He fell in three sets, after two hours and 47 minutes.
Most experienced in such affairs, David Ferrer, another type of competitor, given to the development and full of patience, sought his fortune in a fighting fund, whose first set went over an hour. Not a final contested by deliveries, with two long interruptions due to rain, or a Nadal, like it happened on Saturday, handed over to camp when it caused the options to fracture the score, prevented his fifth title in the Rome's Foro Italico, figure that climbs to record events of Andre Agassi in this category, where Both now share the lead with a total of 17.
Nadal prevailed 7-5, 6-4 after an hour and 44 minutes in a match that began at four in the afternoon and ended around nine o'clock at night, with the stands nearly empty. Many home fans had already been moved to witness the Lazio-Inter. They could not contemplate a ceremony at which prizes were awarded to the champion five times, the real emperor of the clay.