Nadal, Massu Advance as ATP Title FavoritesPosted on April 30, 2006  Nadal v. Robredo in All-Spanish Barcelona FinalBarcelona fans will revel in an all-Spanish final after Rafael Nadal and Tommy Robredo advanced into the final Saturday at the Open Seat Barcelona. The top-seeded Nadal stopped his streaking Spanish countryman Nicolas Almagro 7-6(2), 6-3, while the No. 6-seeded Robredo beat unseeded Swiss Stan Wawrinka 6-4, 6-4. "It could be a long match as he runs a lot," Robredo told reporters on facing Nadal. Nadal's win tied the record of Bjorn Borg's 46 consecutive wins on clay, second only to Guillermo Vilas' 53. "You can't compare me to Borg, he was the greatest tennis player of all time," Nadal told reporters. "I can't see myself winning five Wimbledons." Nadal beat Robredo in both their career meetings, both in 2005. The final will be best-of-five sets, and the first all-countryman final of 2006 according to the ATP. The doubles final in Barcelona will be (1) Knowles/Nestor (d. Dlouhy/Vizner in a match tiebreak in the semis) vs. (8) Fyrstenberg/Matkowski (d. (7) Bhupathi/Friedl in a match tiebreak). Massu to Eat Bracciali in ATP Casablanca Final Top-seeded Nicolas Massu defeated Bjorn Phau 6-2, 6-4 Saturday at the Grand Prix Hassan II in Casablanca, with the Chilean advancing to his third final of 2006. In the final Sunday Massu will play No. 7 seed Daniele Bracciali of Italy, who was handed a victory over No. 8 seed Gilles Simon when the Frenchman retired with a leg injury trailing 0-6, 1-3. It is the first ATP final for Bracciali, who is 8-8 on the year. It will be the first meeting between Massu, ranked No. 37 on the ATP Rankings, and Bracciali, ranked No. 68. |
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