Nadal dominates as Murray crashes
Claycourt king Rafael Nadal was at his dominant best as he trounced
Romania's Victor Hanescu 6-3, 6-2 to storm into the ATP Rome Masters
1000 quarter-finals at the Foro Italico on Thursday.
Earlier Spanish 13th seed David Ferrer upset world number four Andy
Murray 6-4, 6-4 while world number two Novak Djokovic had few problems
in disposing of Brazilian Thomaz Bellucci 6-4, 6-4.
Nadal blasted 31 winners and broke Hanescu three times, winning in
one hour 22 minutes, as he goes in search of a fifth title here in six
years.
He broke Hanescu to love in the fourth game of the first set
following a sumptuous backhand crosscourt pass and a forehand winner
down the line.
Having served out the set the world number three broke the Romanian
in the first game of the second after a pair of passes, one off each
flank.
When he broke again for a 4-1 lead it seemed all over for Hanescu,
although the Romanian briefly rallied but he could not convert any of
four break points in the next game.
Nadal admitted that he had taken his foot off the gas.
"I stopped playing a little bit and relaxed. I played with less
intensity at 4-1 and I was over-confident," he said.
"It's impossible to play with less intensity at this level, he's a
good player."
Hanescu had one more break point in the final game of the match but
having saved that, Nadal sealed victory with a smash.
The Spaniard now plays Switzerland's Stanislas Wawrinka who beat
fifth-seeded Swede Robin Soderling 6-3, 6-2.
"That's a big result, he's playing well and will have a lot of
confidence," said Nadal of Wawrinka.
Murray struggled badly with his serve throughout his match on his
least favourite surface, recording a pitifully low 41 percent of first
serves.
That gave clay specialist Ferrer the chance to attack the Murray
second serve and he broke once in each set to secure the victory.
The 22-year-old Scot at times appeared listless as seen on the final
point when he dropped a weak forehand into the net.
However, the Brit said he was happy with his performance. "I thought
it was a good match, a high standard, there were a lot of good points, I
just didn't convert my chances," he said.
"I didn't make enough returns and he served a very high percentage so
that was the only disappointing thing.
I wasn't able to create many break point opportunities because that's
normally the best part of my game."
Ferrer will face French seventh seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga who
comfortably dispatched Colombian qualifier Santiago Giraldo 6-3, 6-4.
Djokovic, who has a good record here having won the tournament two
years ago and reached the final in 2009, will next face Spanish sixth
seed Fernando Verdasco who beat countryman Guillermo Garcia-Lopez 6-4,
7-6 (7/2).
The pair played in the semi-finals in Monte Carlo a couple of weeks
ago with an out-of-sorts Djokovic going down 6-2, 6-2. "He's had a great
couple of weeks on clay and he's certainly one of the best in the world
at the moment," said the Serbian. Rome, AFP |