Rakuten Japan Open Men’s Competition: Rafael Nadal cruises into the semi-final
World number one Rafael Nadal ousted the former top twenty tennis contender Dmitry Tursunov in the quarter final round of the Rakuten Japan Open Men’s Competition in two sets on Friday. The final match score was 6-4, 6-1. The Spaniard as a result of this
victory has successfully made his way into the semi-final round in Tokyo.
The Manacor native, who is playing at the ATP World Tour 500 hard tennis competition on the very first occasion in Tokyo, missed an early lead of 4-2 in the opening set, however, bounced back during the ninth game before closing out a lead of one set. Nadal
then raced through the decisive set, winning a total of six straight games from 0-1 down to record win on Friday. The clash concluded in a time period of seventy two minutes in Tokyo.
The left hander, while commenting on his victory after the match said on Friday, “I played a good match, but he also made more mistakes after losing the opening set. It is good for the confidence to keep winning after taking an important title like the United
States Open. When I go on court and I see a full stadium like here today, it feels great. It is good for everyone.”
The 27-year-old Dmitry on the other hand, who came back on the ATP tour at French Open after a lengthy break as a result of his ankle injury, was competing in his first ATP World Tour final eight in 2010 after victories over Richard Gasquest and Ernests
Gulbis in the previous rounds of the competition. He has triumphed in only a total of three ATP World Tour clashes this year and has dropped down in the ATP rankings to number 432 in the world.
Nadal, in contrast as a result of this victory has improved his match record to 64-8 on the year and is just two victories away from capturing his seventh tour-level crown of the season which is going to be his 43rd overall.
He will next take on the winner of the clash between Viktor Troicki and Guillermo Garcia Lopez, who will play later in the day.
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