Rafael Nadal battles past Marin Cilic to reach the semi-final of Rome Masters
World number one Rafael Nadal booked his place in the semi-final of Rome Masters after a convincing straight sets victory over a disappointing Marin Cilic, who went off balance as soon he lost his first set. Cilic who is ranked
23rd in ATP (Association of tennis professionals) rankings list, couldn’t catch up with his opponent’s pace and lost the match in straight sets 6-1, 6-3.
The 24-year-old Spaniard looked determined, served exceptionally well and produced the right balance of attack to seal the match in just one hour and twenty five minutes. Croat’s solid and powerful ground game looked erratic and
messy against the Spaniard and he was no better in this match with Nadal. It looked like the Croat pro had lost trust in his shots and looked scared to go for his two-handed backhands against the Spaniard. Cilic performed below par and completely disappointed
his fans as he failed to advance to the semi-finals.
The second set of the match was relatively tough than the first one, although both were easy wins for the Spaniard. Even though Cilic registered three aces in the match, he also failed to save four of seven break points in it.
He completely looked jaded and didn’t show any resistance which could stop the Spaniard from winning the first set. The twenty four year old Spaniard commanded over his racquet in an expert manner and made his Croat opponent suffer like anything. He looked
as fit as a fiddle and didn’t allow his Croat opponent to get the better of him. Nadal scored 67 percent of points on his service, 63 percent of points on return and 65 percent of points in total to race to a 6-1 lead. The Spaniard had full control of the
match and though he was not at his very best form-wise, Croat’s poor game level still allowed him to clinch the first set without much of a fight.
The disappointing defeat in the first set brought worry to the Croat and he started to up the level of his game. He played a lot better in the second set, but he still failed to test the Spaniard at all. The Spaniard didn’t face
any break point in the set, while Cilic got broken twice serving to stay in the match at 5-3. Nadal played exceptionally well and scored 78 percent behind his first serves and 100 percent behind his second serves respectively. Nadal held on to his serve and
then finally went on to break the Croat to take the set 6-3.
If Roger Federer had held up in his third round match, he would have faced Rafael Nadal in the semi-finals, but the world number three was defeated by Richard Gasquet of France who rallied from a set down to defeat the Swiss in
three sets. The players have already met each other on eight different occasions at the ATP tour with Nadal leading their head-to-head series, 8-0. Gasquet needs to come up with something extraordinary against Nadal if he desires to reach the title match.
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