Nadal Whips Canas, Ups Clay Streak to 72 with Third Straight Barcelona Title

Top seed Rafael Nadal claimed his 20th ATP title and 12th consecutive clay court crown when he defeated Guillermo Canas 6-3, 6-4 in the 1hr., 40 min. final of the Open Seat 2007 Sunday.

Nadal, 20, became just the second player (Mats Wilander 1982-84) in the 55-year history of the Barcelona tournament to win a hat-trick of titles and in doing so extended his Open era winning streak on clay to 72 matches.

"To win another final, in Barcelona, at my home club, it's a great feeling," said Nadal. "The first time I won it was like a dream, so what can I say, to win it for a third time, to win my 20th title here, it is an amazing feeling."

Nadal improved his perfect record in clay court finals to 15-0 and his record in all ATP finals to 20-3, giving him an even better finals winning percentage (.869) than Roger Federer (.770). Nadal's 15 clay court titles puts him in a tie with Gustavo Kuerten for fourth place on the list of most career clay court titles.

By winning Sunday's final Nadal breaks a tie with Novak Djokovic for most ATP match wins in 2007: 27 victories.
It was just last month that Nadal snapped an eight-month title drought at the ATP Masters Series event in Indian Wells, but he has now won three of his past four tournaments.

In the space of two weeks Nadal has seen off the two players considered most likely to threaten his quest to win a third consecutive Roland Garros title, beating Roger Federer in the Masters Series Monte-Carlo final for the second straight year and Canas in the Barcelona title match. He has not dropped a set during the clay court swing.

A Spaniard has captured the Barcelona trophy in each of the past five years. Beside Nadal’s three titles, Tommy Robredo won in 2004, and Carlos Moya in 2003. The last non-Spaniard to win the title was Argentine Gaston Gaudio in 2002 (d. Costa).

Canas took the fight to Nadal from the outset and forced the top seed to fend off two break points in the first game of the match. It was clear both players were in for a grueling afternoon as the first four game of the match spanned 23 minutes.

But Nadal would not face another break point after his first service game and ultimately overpowered 29-year-old Canas with his lethal forehand, breaking the Argentine once in both the first and second sets. Canas did not go down without a fight, saving a match point on his serve at 3-5, and two match points when Nadal led 40/0 on serve in the final game of the match.
Nadal receives 300 ATP Ranking points and 130,200 Euros, while Canas collects 210 points and 68,500 Euros.

Nadal improved to 3-0 in career meetings with Canas.

"He has been working very hard and his comeback this season is really impressive and I am very happy for him," Nadal said of Canas. "It shows he is mentally very strong."

Nadal’s 72-match clay court streak began after a quarterfinal loss to Igor Andreev on Apr. 8, 2005 in Valencia. Nadal has a 16-1 record in Barcelona, with his only loss coming to countryman Alex Corretja in the second round in 2003.

Canas was playing in his third final of the year. He won his seventh career ATP title at Costa do Sauipe in February (d. Ferrero) and was runner-up at Miami four weeks ago (l. to Djokovic). He slipped to a 7-9 career record in ATP finals. Canas came into the final an ATP-best 5-1 against Top 10 opponents

"I think my level was good today, the only difference was a few points," Canas said. "I had the luck to beat Roger (Federer) twice on hard courts – maybe I didn't have the luck to beat Rafa today. But I am very happy with the way I played this week, to reach another final. I know I need to improve a few things, but I am not that far away."