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Nadal ends Roddick’s long reign at Queen’s

Spain’s Rafael Nadal plays a return to Andy Roddick of the US during their semi-final at the Artois Championships at the Queen’s Club in London on Saturday. PHOTO: AP

Rafael Nadal ended Andy Roddick’s reign at Queen’s as the Spaniard reached his first final at the pre-Wimbledon tournament on Saturday.

Nadal, the top seed, will meet Novak Djokovic, who thrashed David Nalbandian 6-1, 6-0, in the final following his 7-5, 6-4 win over reigning champion Roddick.

Just a week after winning his fourth French Open with a breathtaking demolition of Roger Federer, Nadal has made a seamless transition to the lush grass of west London.

“It means a lot to play so well against the defending champion who has won so many games here,” Nadal said. “I felt he was the favorite because he is an amazing player on grass because of his serve.”

Roddick left Queen’s as the champion in four of the last five years, losing only one of his previous 26 matches, but even a grass court powerhouse like the American third seed was unable to subdue Nadal.

“Credit to him, he played well, there’s no question,” Roddick said. “I was pretty happy with the way I hit the ball, but he’s just so match-sharp right now. There’s no question who was sharper going in. He’s won a Grand Slam title so I think I was fighting an uphill battle. He’s almost in cruise control from playing so many matches.”

Despite the extra advantage of playing just one set in the last two rounds after Mardy Fish and then Andy Murray’s withdrawals, Roddick never looked likely to repeat his win over Nadal in Dubai earlier this year.

Even Roddick’s fierce serves of more than 225kph could not subdue Nadal and he quickly earned three break points. Roddick managed to claw them back to stay on level terms, but Nadal’s superior ground strokes always looked likely to make the difference.

The pressure finally told at 5-5 in the first set when the American netted a backhand to give Nadal a break point he took with a blistering forehand down the line.

It was the first time Roddick had dropped his serve in the tournament and he could not recover. He had four break points in the next game, but Nadal held to win the set.

Nadal went for the kill in the second set. Roddick cracked again when two unforced errors handed Nadal a break for a 3-2 lead.

Roddick knew his record bid was fading but he still managed to raise a smile as he milked the applause from the crowd after a volley that deceived Nadal.

That was his last hurrah, as Nadal easily served out to clinch the win.

Djokovic, 21, is the youngest player ever to reach the last four here, but the second seed gave a mature grass court display to destroy Nalbandian in just 47 minutes. The Serb cemented his status as the major challenger to Nadal and Federer by winning the Australian Open in January and he showed here that he has all the qualities to needed to win Wimbledon as well.

Nalbandian gifted Djokovic a break point in the third game when he tamely put a backhand into the net and the Serb took full advantage, lashing a forehand winner to move ahead.

He broke the Argentine again to put the set out of Nalbandian’s reach and closed it out by winning his sixth successive game.

If that was a clinical effort, then the second set was just brutal for Nalbandian as Djokovic broke three times to win the tie.

“I wasn’t expecting such an easy match,” Djokovic said. “Nalbandian has a lot of experience and he loves to play on this surface, but obviously I did everything that I needed to do. In the most important moments, I was playing great tennis. He wasn’t serving on his top of the level, very weak. I stepped it up and went for my shots. I look forward to playing Rafa. It could be a very interesting match.”
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