Nadal Holds Off Struff, Could Face Thiem Next
In his first meeting against Rafael Nadal, Jan-Lennard Struff had the right game plan – serve and volley and hit every ball as hard as he could. But Nadal weathered Struff's most aggressive best, and is now two wins away from a record-setting 12th Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell title.
The 32-year-old Spaniard made his 12th Barcelona semi-final on Friday, overcoming the big-hitting Struff 7-5, 7-5 on Pista Rafa Nadal. Nadal has never lost in a Barcelona semi-final (11-0), and will meet the winner between fifth seed Dominic Thiem and Guido Pella of Argentina.
Nadal leads his FedEx ATP Head2Head series against Thiem 8-3, but the Austrian has beaten Nadal on clay the past two seasons (2018 Madrid, 2017 Rome). Pella, who won his maiden ATP Tour title in February at the Brasil Open in Sao Paulo, is 0-3 against the Spaniard.
Struff had made his second quarter-final of the season by crushing 31 winners, including 18 from his forehand, against last year's finalist and No. 8 Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece. The German knew his quarter-final against Nadal would be short-lived if he tried to hang with Nadal from the back of the court, so every opportunity the 6'5” German had – while serving or facing a short ball – he raced forward.
Nadal broke in the fourth game with a first-serve return winner that landed just inside the baseline, but Struff broke back in the seventh game with an aggressive return down the line. Nadal, however, with the crowd coming alive, cranked up his level to break to love in the 12th game and take the opener.
Struff wisely stuck to his strategy in the second, but he couldn't find a way into any Nadal service games. The Spaniard won landed 83 per cent of his first serves in the second set, and broke Struff once more in the 12th game.
from Tennis - ATP World Tour http://bit.ly/2DAdDRc
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