Rafael Nadal outclasses Juan Martin Del Potro to reach Indian Wells Final
Rafael Nadal, World no.1 and top seed at the BNP Paribas Open 2011, defeated world no.90 and former US Open Champion Juan Martin Del Potro in straight sets on Saturday at the Indian Wells Tennis Gardens in California. Nadal was
ruthless in his decimation of the resurgent Argentine, and took only two sets to whip his opponent 6-4, 6-4.
Rafael Nadal is a machine. He is almost unstoppable when he is in flow, and recently, he has been in flow. The Spaniard has suffered two losses this year, but one of them came through injury and the other to his personal kryptonite,
Nikolay Davydenko. He is magnificent at Masters Events usually, and has already won 18 of them in his career so far. The World number 1 will be looking for both his first title this year and his third trophy at this particular Masters event.
Del Potro took the world of tennis by storm in 2009, when as a 20-year-old he defeated both Nadal and Federer on his way to the US Open title. Soon after that though, the then world number four suffered an unfortunate wrist injury
which kept him out of tennis for a year. The Argentine has had a remarkable comeback run however, rising from being ranked below 400 at the start of the year being number 90 now. His year so far has already seen him win one tour level event, and this shall
be his fourth semi-final appearance this year.
Del Porto is one of the few players on tour to have beaten Nadal three times, and these three times include their last meeting. This statistic was almost made to count in the first set, where Del Potro looked good early on. The
tall South American served 68 per cent of his first serves correctly, and converted 60 per cent of them into points. His Spanish opponent was worse at getting serves in, but better at converting them into points, with the respective percentages at 56 and 81
per cent. This allowed Nadal to create 3 chances to break, two of which he converted to take the lead. While Del Potro did break once himself, he lost the set 6-4.
In the second set, the story was much the same. The lanky South American used his tall frame to get 73 per cent of his first serves in, but could only win 61 per cent of his service points, compared to Nadal’s 75 per cent. Again,
the Spaniard created an opportunity to break and availed in to take the set 6-4.
The Spaniard next faces Serbian Novak Djokovic in the final. The Serb has just moved ahead of Roger Federer in the world rankings, and will be looking to prove his mettle by continuing his amazing 17 match winning streak this year.
A victory over the world number 1 will definitely be a feather in Djokovic’s cap, while Nadal will look to capture his first trophy of the year to start off his winning ways.
Tags: