With the French Open two weeks away, Rafael Nadal again showed he is all but unbeatable on clay.
Nadal staved off two match points in the fifth set before coming out on top in the tiebreak to defeat rival and world No. 1 Roger Federer and win the clay-court Rome Masters tournament Sunday.
The 6-7 (0-7), 7-6 (7-5), 6-4, 2-6, 7-6 (7-5) victory in the five-hour match extended Nadal's winning streak on clay to 53 matches, tying Guillermo Vilas's record for the most consecutive victories on the slow surface in the Open era.
Rafael Nadal reacts after winning a point against Roger Federer in Sunday's Rome Masters final.
(Andrew Medichini/Associated Press)
In another connection with Vilas, Sunday's championship match was the first Rome final to feature the top two seeds since 1979, when the top-seeded Vilas lost a five-set match to Vitas Gerulaitis.
Federer and Nadal have combined to win 12 of the last 13 ATP Masters Series titles over the past two years.
The match also marked the third final between the top two players in the world this season, with Nadal victorious each time. The 19-year-old Spaniard defeated Federer in Dubai in March and in Monte-Carlo last month.
Nadal also improved to 5-1 lifetime versus Federer and has won his last 13 finals, including last year's French Open, the only grand slam tournament that is played on clay.
Federer has only three losses this year, with each coming at the hands of Nadal.
It looked like Federer would buck that trend Sunday as he took a 4-1 lead in the fifth set, but Nadal held at love and then broke Federer to get back on serve.
Nadal took the gift
Nadal again found his back against the wall while serving at 5-6 and in a 15-40 hole, but Federer failed to capitalize on two championship points with back-to-back unforced errors. Nadal gladly took the gift, eventually blasting a cross-court winner to force a decisive tiebreak.
Federer again seized the upper hand, grabbing a 5-3 advantage before two more unforced errors evened the tiebreak. After a third straight miscue, a frustrated Federer sailed a forehand well long and Nadal raised his hands as the champion.
"It was very close from start until the finish. The result obviously reflects that too," said Federer. "It's a big pity for me because I came back well and in the end, I should have won. He caught me right on the finish line. But that's all I could do — fight hard and try to play as well as I could."
The title is Nadal's second consecutive in Rome and he pocketed $430,000 for the victory at the French Open tune-up.
"I was lucky that when he had match points, he made a mistake with two forehands, one of which was quite simple for him," Nadal said. "Today was a very emotional match, played at a good level."
The first set was a back-and-forth affair with both players showing spurts of excellence. However, Federer dominated the tiebreak, smacking five winners while taking all seven points.
The top seed looked poised to take a two-set advantage with a 4-2 lead in the second-set tiebreak, but he relinquished five of the next six points to drop the set and level the match.
Nadal broke Federer midway through the third set and held on to get within one set of victory. However, the Swiss star turned it on, looking dominant in easily taking the fourth set.
With files from Sports Network
