With the roof open at first, taking advantage of a crack of the rain, and then closed when it flared, Rafael Nadal lived two different moments, but managed to beat the Portuguese Joao Sousa, 35 in the world, 6-0, 4-6 and 6- 3 to reach the semi-finals of the Mutua Madrid Open against Britain’s Andy Murray, the man who snatched the title from him last year.
The Scottish player had previously defeated Czech Tomas Berdych, 6-3, 6-2 in 76 minutes, in a great show of power. Nadal gave up the first set of this week and sentenced in two hours and five minutes. The key is to know if tomorrow Saturday Murray will be measured in the duel 24 between the two (17-6 for Nadal and 8-1 on the ground) with the roof closed or outdoors.
Nadal deployed his entire arsenal against Sousa, and against Real Madrid players Cristiano Ronaldo and Arbeloa, and Saúl, from Atlético among others, turned the first set into a monologue (25 minutes) and was on his way to endorse Sousa with a defeat similar to the one inflicted on him in Rio de Janeiro last year (6-1 and 6-0).
Sousa, a regular at Nadal’s concentrations in Manacor, where he is invited by the Spanish player, knows perfectly the game of the winner of 14 grand, and despite conceding a 7-0 run, he did not collapse.
But with 3-2 in the second, the rain forced the match to be interrupted, the roof closed and the game changed completely. The Portuguese saw his option, dismayed and went on the attack. Nadal noticed this change in situation more and with the heavier track and the flat shots of his rival he gave up the first set this week.
In the last, Nadal regained normality, and the public helped him with their spirits. But the four-time tournament winner had to suffer to close out his 13th consecutive win of the European clay court season.
“The second started evenly, and then this break came due to the rain, which has not been very good for us,” said Rafa. «The balls were a bit wetter, and bigger, and everything was more complicated, I didn’t feel like they bounced more. I have been losing little by little and he has played better. Today is as if there had been no altitude, “he explained.
“I made the break at the ideal time,” he said of the third set. “I’m in the semifinals, I’m very excited and that’s very important coming from where we came from,” he said.
Nadal against Murray in the semifinals of the Madrid Masters
