Li Na-maria showdown
Nadal reaches seventh final, Maria and Li Na to contest women’s title
ROME: Rafael Nadal dominated David Ferrer 7-6 (8-6), 6-0 yesterday to power into a seventh Rome Masters final, beating his fellow Spaniard for the 12th consecutive time on clay.
Second-seeded Nadal will now face either world No. 1 Novak Djokovic, the defending champion, or world No. 2 Roger Federer in today’s final.
Nadal, winner of the Foro Italico trophy in five of seven appearances in the Italian capital, also won a 39th straight claycourt semi-final and has not lost at the final-four stage on the surface since 2003.
Ferrer, a legendary scrambler on the dirt, was beaten by his countryman in Rome for the third time as Nadal polished his career record here to 35-2. He now stands 15-4 in the pair’s series.
Play progressed at a glacial pace yesterday, with the first four games taking 33 minutes which was longer than Federer’s winning first set on Friday against Andreas Seppi.
The second game took up half of that time as Nadal fought off seven break points to finally hold for 2-1.
Ferrer double-faulted away a servicegame to trail 3-2 as his rival started to get a grip on the match.
Nadal won the 84-minute marathon in a tiebreaker and then began to sprint in the second set to take a 3-0 lead. Ferrer saved five break points in the fourth game before falling to defeat.
Spain’s 10-time Grand Slam champion will be competing in his 70th career ATP final today, defending a record of 48-21. He and Federer currently share the record for Masters titles won at 20 each.
Nadal has 15 wins on clay this season against one defeat, which came in Madrid against compatriot Fernando Verdasco last week.
Defending champion Maria Sharapova will take on Li Na of China in the women’s final after a confident 6-3, 6-4 victory over Germany’s Angelique Kerber yesterday.
The Russian world number two gained revenge on 12th seed Kerber for a defeat earlier this year, overpowering her opponent with heavy groundstrokes.
Li Na received a walkover into the final after title favourite Serena Williams withdrew with a lower back injury.
A winner in Stuttgart last month, Sharapova broke early in both sets and was never headed as she reached her fifth final of the year.
Serena Williams said she expected to be 100% fit for next week’s French Open despite pulling out yesterday “as a precaution”.
“If it’s not 100% it’s better not to play and make it worse,” the world number six said.
“But I am in good form, I have a few days to get better and I amconfident I will be fit for the French Open.”
When she won the title in Madrid last weekend, Williams described her male counterparts as “weenies” for complaining about the slippery nature of the blue clay, saying the women were “way tougher than men”.
But yesterday, the former world number one admitted she might have to eat her words. “I guess it turns out I was the weenie,” she said via Twitter. — Agencies