Rafael Nadal triumphs over Mardy Fish to reach title match – Tokyo Open 2011
World number two, Rafael Nadal of Spain eased past American number one, Mardy Fish with a breadstick at the Rakuten Japan Open Tennis Championships 2011, an ATP World Tour 500 series event taking place on the outdoor hard courts
of Koto in Tokyo, Japan. He registered a 7-5, 6-1 success over the world number eight Fish to advance into the final round on Saturday.
Top seeded Spaniard remaining on course to defend his title after pulling out a straight set victory over the fourth seed Fish at the Ariake Coliseum. After earning this victory, Nadal not only avenged his loss at Cincinnati earlier
this season but also extended lead in the head-to-head series by 7-2.
The 2011 French Open winner, Nadal convincingly entered the Japanese court and smoothly plucked in entire serves to tie the scores until he founded the desiderated break in the eleventh game and took lead for the first time. The
Spaniard then held his serve once more to seal the opener with a 7-5 score line in an hour. He clobbered a poor first serve share of 48 percent as compared to American’s 54 percent but earned a fabulous 86 percent win on it. Furthermore, Nadal faced zero breakpoint
and capitalised on one out of two breakpoint opportunities to his advantage.
25-year-old went berserk in the final set as he unleashed flurry of powerful groundstrokes from his arsenal of skills to wipe out first four games in a row. After Fish got on the score sheet for the first time in the fifth game,
Nadal turned his rage mode on again and bagged in following two games to earn a breadstick. He again pocketed entire serves without facing any breakpoint and cashed in on three out of four breakpoint opportunities to his advantage. The Spaniard formulated
a better first serve share of 74 percent as opposed to Fish’s 65 percent and registered an acceptable 57 percent win on it.
The blissful Spaniard will move ahead to face the winner of the match between second seeded British Andy Murray and third seed David Ferrer. If he stays focus in the match, Nadal can easily overpower any of these two and clinch
another title.
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