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17th week
Men’s clay-court tennis in Europe has been functioning in cycles for many years. Rafael Nadal [2] begins it with the Monte Carlo title, then fortifies his supremacy over all other clay-court specialists beating the best of them – David Ferrer in Barcelona‘s final rounds #, and finally confirms his status of “the clay-court king” clinching another title at Roland Garros ##. Rafa has already done 2/3 of his standard clay-court obligations capturing the 48th title (his 7th in the Catalan capital)… Ferrer overcame two tight matches against big-servers (fought off three match points with a brave attitude against Feliciano Lopez in the quarterfinals) and forced Rafa to an extreme effort, especially in the 1st set of their 4th Barcelona final; Nadal withstood five set points though, serving at 5:6 (two forehand winners, two great points in defense and an ace) to ultimately get the crucial set after 93 minutes. It was Nadal’s first tie-break since the Australian Open final in January. In the 2nd set, Ferrer rallied from a 1:3 deficit to serve for the set at 5:4, but on each of three occasions when he was two points away, he collapsed, once even smashing close to the net (Nadal retrieved the ball and put it away with an overhead himself). Since this week Nadal has defeated two fellow Spaniards, Ferrer and Verdasco 14 times (he has notched more wins only over Federer and Djokovic). “It’s almost unimaginable to win here seven times,” said Nadal. “It’s a special tournament for me, at home in my club. To win at home in front of the people you know is always more special.”
Barcelona (500)
Bucharest (250)
Choker of the week:
2007, SF: Nadal d. Ferrer 7-5, 6-1 (1:35 h)
Monte Carlo: 9 appearances, 44-1 record, 8 titles
2 Responses to 17th week
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Before the WWII the hugarian have lot of very good players.
Also great footballers… One of football fans told me that it was connected to the Austro-Hungarian empire on the turn of centuries. Sport was much more better developed there than in many other parts of Europe.