TENNIS – Nicholas Almagro upset his compatriot Rafa Nadal with a 2-6, 7-6(5), 6-4 win at the ATP Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell to reach the semifinal. Nadal, eight-time winner in 10 appearances in Barcelona, suffered his first defeat in eleven head-to-head matches. Diego Sampaolo
With his third round win over Ivan Dodig on Thursday, Nadal won his 42nd match in a row in Barcelona. He also scored his 683rd career win on the ATP tour tying Arthur Ashe in 11th place in the match.win list.
Nicolas Almagro won just two sets against Nadal who led 10-0 in the previous head-to-head matches.
Both players traded breaks in the opening two games of the first set but Almagro made 15 costly unforced errors. Nadal was looking to cruise to his 11th win against his compatriot after winning the first set with 6-2 (his 44th consecutive set in this tournament) but Almagro rallied from a 1-3 deficit in the tie-break to clinch it with 7-5 after 1 hour and 16 minutes. Almagro saved all five break points in the second set. The last time Nadal dropped a set in Barcelona dates back to the 2008 final against David Ferrer.
The third set featured four breaks of serve. Almagro rallied from 1-3 in the decider fighting back from a break down by winning three consecutive games with a break for 4-3 in the seventh game. Nadal managed to break straight back in a hard-fought eighth game to draw level to 4-4. Almagro earned a triple break point in the ninth game and converted the first chance to love to lead 5-4.
Almagro rallied from a 15-40 deficit in the tenth game when he was serving for the set. Almagro earned a second match point with a forehand swing volley. He hit a forehand winer down the line to clinch his first win against Nadal after two hours and 48 minutes.
“I had a lot of chances in the second set when I had the match under control but I didn’t take them. As the match went on, I was less clam but I still had openings in the third set at 3-1 and 4-4 which I didn’t take. This is tennis and you just have to keep going”, admitted Nadal.
Almagro scored a back-to-back win against a Spanish player after beating Fernando Verdasco on Thursday. Almagro took a re-match against Verdasco who beat him earlier this month on clay in Houston
Nadal suffered his first defeat in Barcelona since 2003 when he lost against Alex Corretja on his debut in this tournament back in 2003 as a 15-year-old player. The Mallorcan star lost in the quarter final stage for the second consecutive week after losing to David Ferrer in the quarter final in Monte-Carlo.
Almagro set up a semifinal clash against Colombia’s Santiago Giraldo who won the first set 6-4 before German Phillip Kohlschreiber withdrew because of an injury problem after the seventh game of the second set as Giraldo was leading 4-3. Giraldo, who saved five match points to beat young Austrian Dominic Thiem 4-6 6-4 7-5 on Thursday, has reached his third semifinal this year after Vina del Mar and Houston.
Kei Nishikori reached the semifinal at the Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell after beating Marin Cilic 6-1 6-3, his first tournament since suffering from a groin injury which forced him to withdraw from the Miami semifinals.
Nishikori dominated the match hitting 18 winners against Cilic who was probably tired after battling past Tommy Robredo in a hard-fought match on Thursday when he prevailed after two hours and 47 minutes with the scoreline of 7-5 6-7 (3-7) 7-6 (7-5) after saving five of six break points.
Nishikori, who qualified for the Barcelona quarter final for the second time in three years with a 6-0 6-4 win over Andrey Golubev, has reached his fourth semifinal this year. He reached his previous best result in 2012 when he lost in the quarter final against Fernando Verdasco. This year the Japanese star won one title in Memphis and reached two semifinals in Brisbane and Miami.
Nishikori set up a semifinal match against Ernests Gulbis who cruised past Teymuraz Gabashvili in straight sets with 6-1 6-4. Gulbis saved all the five break points he faced against Gabashvili.
Gabashvili, a Russian player of Georgian origin, upset last week’s Monte-Carlo semifinalist David Ferrer in the second round scoring his first top-10 win since his third round win over Andy Roddick in the third round of the 2010 Roland Garros.
Gulbis has reached his third semifinal this year. The Latvian won his fifth career title at the Open 13 in Marseille beating Jo Wilfred Tsonga last February and lost to Tomas Berdych in the Rotterdam semifinal. He has achieved his best result in the Spanish clay tournament improving the quarter final reached in 2010 when he lost to Fernando Verdasco. The Latvian reached his career high last February when he moved up to World Number 18 when he won in Marseille where he scored two consecutive wins against top-10 players Richard Gasquet and Jo Wilfred Tsonga. He reached the quarter finals in Indian Wells but dropped to World Number 23 after losing the opening match in both Miami and Monte-Carlo.
