Nearly 14 years after their first meeting as professionals, Rafael Nadal maintained order by beating Spanish countryman Albert Montanes 6-2, 6-2 to make the Barcelona Open quarter-finals on Thursday.
Nadal has yet to drop a set in six tour-level and challenger matches against Montanes. They exchanged early breaks, but the top-seeded Nadal soon took control.
Nadal broke serve five times and had 24 winners against only nine for Montanes, a wild card.
Photo: AFP
“I had a great forehand today and the conditions were much better than yesterday,” said Nadal, who was 16 when he beat Montanes for the first time at a challenger in Barcelona.
Coming off his first title of the year at the Monte Carlo Masters last week, Nadal next faces Italy’s Fabio Fognini, who defeated eighth-seeded Viktor Troicki of Serbia 6-3, 6-2.
Fognini eliminated Nadal in the third round of Barcelona last year, among his three wins over Nadal last year, including a five-setter in the third round at the US Open.
“Tomorrow will be a tough match against Fognini, he beat me three times last year and it was an up and down against him,” Nadal said.
Nadal is trying to win his ninth title at the Barcelona Open, and first since 2013. He is on a seven-match winning streak.
Second-seeded Kei Nishikori, the two-time defending champion, advanced to the quarter-finals by beating Frenchman Jeremy Chardy 6-3, 7-5.
Nishikori lost serve at 5-4 in the second set, but broke back in the following game to eventually clinch the third-round victory. It was his 12th straight win in Barcelona.
Nishikori is set to play 11th-seeded Ukrainian Alexandr Dolgopolov, who defeated Russian qualifier Karen Khachanov 6-4, 7-5 behind 10 aces.
“It will be a very complicated match,” Nishikori said. “He is difficult to play, serves well, and uses the slice a lot. We are very good friends so it will be interesting.”
Also, Malek Jaziri converted only two of 12 break points, but was able to defeat Alexander Zverev of Germany 7-6 (5), 6-4 to set up a quarter-final against sixth-seeded Benoit Paire of France, who eliminated ninth-seeded Pablo Cuevas of Uruguay 6-2, 6-4.
BRD Nastase Tiriac
TROPHY
By Gavin Meakin
Staff writer, with AP, BUCHAREST
The Netherlands’ Robin Haase upset top-seeded Bernard Tomic of Australia 7-6 (4), 5-7, 6-3 in the second round of the BRD Nastase Tiriac Trophy in Bucharest on Thursday.
The win means Haase faces Spain’s Fernando Verdasco in the quarter-finals, after the Spaniard downed Moldova’s Radu Albot 6-3, 6-1.
“It was tough to play today,” Haase was quoted as saying on the ATP Web site.
“It was his first match on clay and I could see it was difficult for him to get used to the conditions,” he said. “For me it was the second match here, so I knew what to expect. We had never played against each other before, so it was not easy. I just tried to make him play as much as possible and to be solid on important points.”
France’s Lucas Pouille made short work of second-seeded Ivo Karlovic, defeating the 2.1m-tall Croat 6-3, 6-4 in one hour. In the next round, the 22-year-old Frenchman is to take on seventh-seeded Italian player Paolo Lorenzi, who toppled Japan’s Taro Daniel 6-2, 6-0.
“I am happy with this second round,” Pouille said. “It was a good match, in line with how I played on Tuesday. I tried to be solid, to do simple things, and it worked well.”
In the other second-round matches, Argentina’s Federico Delbonis beat Ukraine’s Illya Marchenko 7-5, 6-2; Spain’s Guillermo Garcia-Lopez defeated Britain’s Kyle Edmund 6-3, 6-3; Argentina’s Guido Pella toppled Spain’s Daniel Gimeno-Traver 6-1, 3-6, 6-2; and Italy’s Marco Cecchinato won against Bosnia-Herzegovina’s Damir Dzhumhur 6-3, 7-6 (3).
Shohei Ohtani and his wife arrived in South Korea with his Los Angeles Dodgers teammates yesterday ahead of their season-opening games with the San Diego Padres next week. Ohtani, wearing a black training suit and a cap backwards, was the first Dodgers player who showed up at the arrival gate of Incheon International Airport, west of Seoul. His wife, Mamiko Tanaka, walked several steps behind him. As a crowd of fans, many wearing Dodgers jerseys, shouted his name and cheered slogans, Ohtani briefly waved his hand, but did not say anything before he entered a limousine bus with his wife. Fans held placards
Taiwan’s Tai Tzu-ying yesterday advanced to the quarter-finals at the All England Open, beating Kim Ga-eun of South Korea 21-17, 21-15. With the win, Tai earned a semi-final against China’s He Bingjiao, who beat Michelle Li of Canada 21-9, 21-9. Defending champion An Se-young defeated India’s P.V. Sindhu 21-19, 21-11. An on Wednesday cruised into the second round, unlike last year’s men’s winner, Li Shifeng, who suffered a shock defeat. South Korea’s An, the world No. 1, overcame Taiwan’s Hsu Wen-chi 21-17, 21-16 to set up the match against Sindhu. In other women’s singles matches, Taiwan’s Sung Shuo-yun lost 21-18, 24-22 against Carolina Marin of
EYEING TOP SPOT: A victory in today’s final against Storm Hunter and Katerina Siniakova would return 38-year-old Hsieh Su-wei to the world No. 1 ranking Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Mertens on Thursday secured a spot in the women’s doubles finals at the BNP Paribas Open after dispatching Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the US and Australia’s Ellen Perez 6-2, 7-6 (7/5) at Indian Wells. Hsieh and her Belgian partner Mertens, who won the Australian Open in late January, coasted through the first set after breaking their opponents’ serve twice, but found the going tougher in the second. Both pairs could only muster one break point over 12 games, neither of which were converted, leaving the set to be decided by a tiebreaker. Hsieh and Mertens took a 6-3 lead,
DOUBLES PAYBACK: Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Martens avenged their defeat in the quarters at the Qatar TotalEnergies Open against Demi Schuurs and Luisa Stefani Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei on Wednesday advanced to the semi-finals of the women’s doubles at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, California. Hsieh and partner Elise Mertens of Belgium dispatched Demi Schuurs and Luisa Stefani 6-1, 6-4 to set up a clash against Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the US and Australia’s Ellen Perez for a spot in the final of the WTA 1000 tournament. Hsieh and Martens made a blistering start to their rematch after they lost to Schuurs and Stefani in the quarter-finals at the Qatar TotalEnergies Open last month, winning three games without reply at the start of the first set