Rafael Nadal defeats Thomaz Bellucci : Nadal favorite to win French Open
Spanish Rafael Nadal, the World No. 2, slammed the ghosts of his first French Open setback by collecting his 200th career win on clay by whipping Brazilian Thomaz Bellucci, 6-2, 7-5, 6-4, in the fourth round of men’s singles event.
Four-time French Open champion Nadal was upset by Swede Robin Soderling in round four of Roland Garros a year ago.
His current match seems a déjà vu of his upset last year as the young Brazilian played inspired tennis to duplicate Soderling’s feat on the same Philippe Chatrier Court. However, the second-seed Spaniard played heads-up tennis to avert a similar result.
The 24th seed Brazilian upsets 14th seed Ivan Ljubicic on Saturday to reach the round of 16 of a grand slam tournament for the first in his career. The 22-year old Bellucci appeared to dominate Nadal with some fine plays and much improved since their first meeting in the first round two years ago.
Bellucci dropped serve in the opening game with a deuce in the next but broke back with some outstanding plays two games later. Nadal broke his serve in game seven and allowed the Spaniard to serve for the set.
In the second set, the top ranked Brazilian recovered with a break point of his own in game five. However, he committed a double fault in game nine that gave the World No. 2 the chance again to wrap up the set with his serve.
The left-handed Bellucci established a 0-40 advantage before scoring his third beak point with a powerful running forehand. Again, the young Bellucci dropped his serve again and gave Rafa the advantage to serve out again.
The seesaw tennis match continued at the beginning of the third set with Bellucci recovering from a Nadal break with booming backhand shots. Bellucci committed two costly errors that gave the Spaniard the advantage in game five.
Interviewed after the match, the 23-year old Nadal set aside his 200th victory on clay as an unimportant statistic. He has now registered a career winning record of 200 wins out of his 216 matches on clay. His only defeat over five sets on clay came from Soderling.
The Brazilian gave Nadal a stiff challenge as his toughest opponent in the tournament so far by dropping his serve four times, the Spaniard felt he rose to the challenge and avert another upset.
"I played probably my best match today in the tournament," said the World No. 2
"I had the match under control - a set and 3-2, 40-15 I think, I made two mistakes" he said.
"After that, everything was difficult."
Nadal collected 109 total points won against Bellucci’s 81. He has 27 winners including service while the Brazilian could only collect 18 points. The second seed only committed 27 unforced errors as compared to the Brazilian’s 40.
Spanish Rafa Nadal will face another tough opponent in 19th seed Nicolas Almagro, a Spanish compatriot, in the quarterfinals of the men’s draw.
This will be a meeting of their 2008 match on the same court with Nadal gaining the upperhand. Almagro defeated Fernando Verdasco 6-1 4-6 6-1 6-4 on Suzanne Lenglen Court to take another crack on Nadal.
Almagro was quoted saying that he knows how to attack Nadal like he did in Madrid if not he will pack his bag and go home. This could be another down-the-line match between Spain’s top clay court players. Nadal might be playing in one of his toughest match so far in Roland Garros.
With Federer’s out of the tournament, Nadal seems to be the huge favorite his fifth French Open title. However, with opponents like Almagro waiting, Nadal could still be in a tough situation.
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