What a tennis feast and what a match!
It was 7-6 (1) 7-5 and it was too much fan.
The two Spaniards went toe to toe all the match. Despite his horrible record against Rafa (13-4) and not beating him on clay since 2004, David was up to the task.
FIRST SET 7-6 (1)
For practically the entire first set Ferrer had the upperhand. As expected David was playing against a wall, but that was not a surprise and he was mentally there. The key point of the match was when David had 4 set points in the 10th game when he was 5-4 up and on Rafa’s service game. Then Nadal made it clear why he has achieved so much in his career saving all set points with gutsy shots.
When they got to the tiebreak David Ferrer melted down to lose it at 1. The set lasted 93 minutes!
SECOND SET 7-5
David was struggling and Rafa went for the jugular. But the world nr.6 came back to recover a 1-3 deficit to break Rafa in the 5th game and in th 8th when Rafa committed an uncharacteristic double fault. It was 5-4 for David that was going to serve for the set. Set over and let’s go to the decider? Not really! David got tight to commit two easy unforced error to allow Rafa to step in an break him back. David was mentally destroyed to concede the next 2 games.
“I had chances in both sets; he played better in the important moments,” said Ferrer. “It’s always hard to lose a final, but especially today it’s hard because of the way it happened. It came down to small details, but Rafa deserved it. Overall I’m happy with my week. I played my best match of the week today, but to win against Rafa I had to do more. I played a bit too conservatively on the set points in the first set. It’s difficult to lose my fourth final. It was a very good tournament for me.”
“This was my hardest match since the start of the clay season,” said the King of Clay. “David always takes you to the limit. I was lucky when I saved break points. The odds were on my side. In the second set David played very close, but I had the luck at the end. I’m so happy and I feel sorry for him. I’m starting to feel my game well on the clay.”
It’s Rafa nr. 7! Well Done!
