Monte Carlo Winner Nadal Looks to Barcelona
Posted on April 28, 2008
BARCELONA, Spain -- World No. 2 Rafael Nadal takes a 17-match winning streak on clay into the
Open 2008 Sabadell Atlantico, where he is the top seed and three-time defending champion.
For the second week in a row, the 21-year-old Spaniard will attempt to become the first player in a
tournament's history to win the title four straight times. On Sunday at Masters Series Monte-Carlo
presented by Rolex, he defeated world No. 1 Roger Federer in the final to take sole possession of the top spot on the list of Open Era title leaders for the claycourt ATP Masters Series event.
He also became just the second player in ATP Masters Series history (since 1990) to win both singles
and doubles titles at the same event after he and Tommy Robredo defeated Mahesh Bhupathi and Mark Knowles in the doubles final.
Last year, Nadal became the fourth player in the history of the Barcelona tournament to win three
titles, joining Roy Emerson (1961, '63-64), Manuel Orantes (1969, '71, '76) and Mats Wilander (1982-84).
Nadal has won 15 straight matches at the event, dropping just three sets in the process. Nadal has won 98 of his last 99 clay court matches going back to 2005 Monte Carlo with his only loss coming to Federer in last year's Hamburg final. Since that loss, he has won 17 straight matches and three
titles on clay (2007 Roland Garros, Stuttgart).
This week, he opens against the winner between Australia's Peter Luczak and Italian Potito Starace.
The first seed he could face is compatriot Feliciano Lopez in the third round, and he is seeded to meet fellow Mallorcan Carlos Moya in the quarterfinals.
The fifth-seeded Moya is one of three other past Barcelona champions in the singles draw (Robredo,
Marat Safin are the others). Moya will be playing in Barcelona for the 13th straight year, and won the title in 2003 by defeating Safin. The 31-year-old has a 6-1 record in the event quarterfinals, but trails the career series against Nadal, 2-5.
Also playing this week in Barcelona are the circuit's Top 3 clay match wins leaders for 2008:
Nicolas Almagro (20-3), David Nalbandian (14-2) and Jose Acasuso (10-6). Almagro, a Barcelona semifinalist in 2006 (l. to Nadal), titled this year in Costa do Sauipe (d. Moya) and Acapulco (d. Nalbandian), and finished as runner-up in Valencia (l. to Ferrer). He is in the same quarter as American No. 4 seed James Blake, who makes his event debut two weeks after reaching his
first career clay court final in Houston.
Third seed Nalbandian, a two-time Barcelona quarterfinalist, won his eighth career ATP title in
February at Buenos Aires (d. Acasuso) and followed with a runner-up finish at Acapulco (l. to Almagro). He comes to Barcelona from a quarterfinal effort in Monte-Carlo (l. to Federer). Acasuso returns to clay for the first time since the Latin American swing, where he compiled a 9-4 record by reaching the final in Buenos Aires, semifinals in Acapulco (l. to Almagro) and quarterfinals in Vina del Mar. He could face Nadal in the third round.
In the bottom quarter of the draw, Spaniards David Ferrer and Robredo are seeded to face off in
the quarterfinals. Ferrer, the No. 2 seed, reached the Barcelona semifinals last year (l. to Nadal). He began his 2008 clay season by winning his hometown title in Valencia and reaching the Monte-Carlo quarterfinals (l. to Nadal).
Robredo, the 2004 Barcelona titlist, turned in his best performance this season by reaching the Valencia semifinals (l. to Ferrer). A Spaniard has won the Barcelona title in seven of the last nine years, including the last five.
-- ATP
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