Rafa Nadal maintained his winning streak – and secured his place in tomorrow’s Semi-Final – against Tomas Berdych in their Round Robin ATP World Tour Finals 2010 match at the O2 Arena, London, this afternoon.
Nadal won 7-6 6-1 after a tight first set was sparked into life following a strange decision at 6-5 got Nadal fired up. The Spaniard was incensed by a point which, following Berdych’s successful challenge, should have been replayed, but was instead awarded to the Czech. Following this point, however, Nadal raised his already high level to take the first set tiebreaker soon after, before demolishing Berdych to just one game to close out the victory.
Nadal’s outburst will make the headlines, but his tennis was just as ruthless – if not more so – once his sense of injustice has been piqued.
Nadal will face Andy Murray in tomorrow’s Semi-Final, while Tomas Berdych is all but mathematically out of the tournament, with the most likely second place qualifier from Group A looking like being Novak Djokovic.
ATP World Tour Finals 2010 – How Things Stand
Below are the standings following the Berdych v Nadal result – at 16:30 GMT on 26 November 2010. The top two players from each Round Robin Group qualify for the Semi-Finals.
Group A
- Rafael Nadal ESP (1) (Record 3-0)
- Novak Djokovic SER (3) (Record 1-1)
- Tomas Berdych CZE (6) (Record 1-2)
- Andy Roddick USA (8) (Record 0-2)
Group B
- Roger Federer SUI (2) (Record 3-0)
- Andy Murray GBR (5) (Record 2-1)
- Robin Soderling SWE (4) (Record 1-2)
- David Ferrer ESP (7) (Record 0-3)
In This Story: Rafael Nadal
Rafael Nadal is a Spanish professional tennis player currently ranked world No. 2 in men’s singles tennis by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP).
Nadal has won 19 Grand Slam singles titles, the second-most in history for a male player, as well as 35 ATP Tour Masters 1000 titles, 21 ATP Tour 500 titles and the 2008 Olympic gold medal in singles and the 2016 Olympic gold medal in doubles. In addition, Nadal has held the world No. 1 ranking for a total of 209 weeks, including being the year-end No. 1 five times.
In majors, Nadal has won a record twelve French Open titles, four US Open titles, two Wimbledon titles and one Australian Open title, and won at least one Grand Slam every year for a record ten consecutive years (2005–2014). Nadal has won 85 career titles overall, including the most outdoor titles in the Open Era (83) and a record 59 titles on clay. With 81 consecutive wins on clay, Nadal holds the record for the longest single-surface win streak in the Open Era.
Nadal has been involved in five Davis Cup titles with Spain, and currently has a 29-win streak and 29–1 record in singles matches at the event. In 2010, at the age of 24, he became the seventh male player and the youngest of five in the Open Era to achieve the singles Career Grand Slam. Nadal is the second male player after Andre Agassi to complete the singles Career Golden Slam, as well as the second male player after Mats Wilander to have won at least two Grand Slams on all three surfaces (grass, hard court and clay).
Books #Ad