translated from Spanish: Nadal beat Tsitsipas and stayed with the ATP 500 in Barcelona

He continues to dominate at his club, on his Rafa Nadal Track, and still does not lose a single final of those played in Barcelona. His defeats have been leading up to a title match where, on up to twelve occasions, he has always won. This time, moreover, to a Tsitsipas who had not dropped a single set in Barcelona, and who is the best of the ‘race’ 2021, the best so far this year. Nadal started the match on bad foot but went from least to bottom, stood firm in his baseline shot, more successful in leaving his opponent and resisted until he ended up imposing his game and nullify the Greek gale that had been Tsitsipas, winner at the Masters 1000 in Monte Carlo, in a very long match in which both had tournament balls in three high-level sets. At the end of the second set, at 5-4 in Nadal’s favour and after a break of serve for each, Manacor had two match balls with the Greek’s serve, but wasted both against the bravery of the opponent, who risked and saved them. Then, with his serve, he went back 0-40 to stay up 6-5, but could not break the current world Number 5 and the manga went to the ‘tie break’. A sudden death where the first to drop his serve was Tsitsipas, but Nadal chained two errors with his serve and, to the third set ball for the Hellenic, was the ultimate. Tie on the scoreboard and the final was going to a final third set, looking for the Balearic feat or the path of Greek tragedy. Nadal had gone from having two tournament balls, two Godó balls, to going to a third set, giving up his third set in Barcelona.Tsitsipas managed to do what only the now director of the Barcelona tournament, David Ferrer, had previously achieved; score a set against Rafa Nadal in a Godó final. Nadal, in the other finals, all won, had not dropped another set. At the moment of truth, the decision-making set, both Nadal and Tsitsipas kept their serves well. But, in Nadal’s fifth, the Greek had a match ball, the first for him, who saved an aggressive manacori at key moments and who climbed with criteria to the net to defend his territory. Although, opposite, the Greek also climbed with guts to give more level to this grand final. At 5-5, a new ‘tie break’ was chewed. Stefanos Tsitsipas was serving, and Nadal had four break balls. In the fourth, Tsitsipas sank and sent her out, leaving Nadal serving to close the match. The Greek went from 30-0 to 30-40, and Nadal cut the reaction. In the ‘deuce’, he stood up in his third match ball — after the two of the second set — and Tsitsipas went away again. Nadal sealed his victory and his dozen titles in Barcelona.Previously, at the start of the match, Tsitsipas went 2-4 up after previously breaking Nadal’s second serve. The manacorí, who was intonating a serve that improved and improved until the end of the crash, managed to match four games and repeated the break taking advantage of the first of the two set balls he had in his favor. It goes back from effort and faith. In the re-editing of the 2018 Barcelona Open final — then Rafa Nadal beat a very young Tsitsipas 6-2, 6-1, in the first face-to-face between the two–, Nadal again prevailed, asserting his experience and his status as ‘king of the earth’. The last precedent was the quarter-finals of this year’s Australian Open, with a 3-6, 2-6, 7-6, 6-4, 7-5 victory for Tsitsipas. After this final, the balance is 7-2 for Nadal.



Original source in Spanish

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