Rafael Nadal overpowers Denis Gremelmayr to reach the final eight – ExxonMobil Qatar Open 2012
Another display of sheer dominance from the world number two, Rafael Nadal, was witnessed in the second round of the ExxonMobil Qatar Open on Wednesday, when he outclassed the German qualifier opponent, Denis Gremelmayr in an authoritative fashion. The top
seeded Spaniard took merely one hour and twenty nine minutes of play to dispose of 189th ranked German opponent in straight sets, with identical scores of 6-2, 6-2.
Nadal’s second victory of the current year awarded him a berth in the quarter-final rounds of the APT (Association of Tennis Professionals) World Tour 250 event, being played on the hard courts of Doha, Qatar. It was the second time that Gremelmayr suffered
a crushing straight sets defeat at the hands of the Spaniard in singles encounters. He was devastated 1-6, 0-6, at the hands of Nadal in the semi-final round in Barcelona in 2008 and failed to perform any better this Wednesday again.
It was an all-Spanish show, with Nadal taking the better of his opponent in every segment of the game to come out as the dominant winner. The Spaniard delivered 70 percent first serve on target and dropped merely four points on it, clinching 24 out of 18
points, en route to victory. He literally faced no serious challenge throughout the contest and cruised through the two sets with the utmost ease to claim victory.
“Today the conditions were difficult, but I think I played another solid match, doing a few things really well," assessed Nadal. "I hit good returns, aggressive ones, and good backhands. I think I played a complete match. I think I'm returning better, especially
[compared to] the last part of the 2011 season," Nadal said. "So that's important, because the beginning of the points a lot of times are the key. I'm happy about how a few things have worked well with the new weight of the racquet. I'm starting to have good
feelings.”
Nadal crafted a total of 15 break opportunities in the matchup but only four conversions proved sufficient for him to claim a comprehensive victory. The second ranked Spaniard nailed two successive serve breaks right up in the opening set to rocket away
to 5-1 lead in barley half an hour of play and then went on to close out the set at 6-2 to get one up in the contest. The Spanish onslaught continued in the second set as well, as Nadal stung two more break point in a row to lead 4-0. The second set again
fell to Nadal at 6-2, letting him through to the quarter-finals of the Qatar Open, where he will face the seventh seed Mikhail Youzhny on Friday.
Tags: