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Nadal Wins 5th Straight Barcelona Title
Posted on April 26, 2009
Rafael Nadal won a fifth successive title at the Barcelona Open Banco Sabadell after defeating fellow Spaniard David Ferrer 6-2, 7-5 Sunday in a repeat of the 2008 final.
The 22-year-old Mallorcan clinched his 35th ATP World Tour title (35-9 in finals) and 24th on clay. Last week, he captured his 14th ATP World Tour Masters 1000 title on clay at the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters, where he has won each year since 2005. Nadal had held all 23 of his service games this week entering the final, but dropped serve three times against Ferrer in the championship match. The two traded breaks of serve in the first four games of the second set before Nadal succeeded in breaking Ferrer in the 11th game and promptly went on to serve out the match.
The two players were facing off for the first time since last year's final at the ATP World Tour 500 tennis tournament, a match Nadal won in three sets. Nadal now improves to a 7-3 record against Valencia-native Ferrer.
Nadal has now won 47 consecutive matches on clay in the month of April, claiming eight titles during that stretch -- five in Monte-Carlo and four in Barcelona (last year's Barcelona final was on May 4). His last loss on clay in April came on April 8, 2005 to Igor Andreev in the Valencia quarter-finals. Since 2005, he has compiled a 142-4 surface match record.
"I never imagined anything like this," Nadal said. "To win again here in Barcelona, in my home club and at such an important tournament is incredible. This has been my best match of the year so far on clay. David played very well and was very aggressive. It was hard to take control of the match and I was lucky that the second set didn't slip away from me."
In the doubles final, Daniel Nestor teamed with Nenad Zimonjic to win the pair's second title in two weeks with a 6-3, 7-6(9) win over Mahesh Bhupathi and Mark Knowles.
"It's special because I won," Nestor said. "It's not fun to be in final number 100 and lose because it's a special day. It's nice that I won. Winning a title is always a nice thing. I've won three times here in Barcelona and I've always played well here so it's nice to win."
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