CAMELOT FANTASIES

ROLAND GARROS 2015 

Nadal Finds His Range At Roland Garros

Paris, France

by ATP Staff
  | 28.05.2015
 


Rafael Nadal improved to a 27-9 match record in 2015.

Rafael Nadal started to find his range Thursday when he improved to 19-2 against fellow Spaniards at Grand Slam championships to advance to the Roland Garros third round.

The nine-time champion won his 13th win in 14 meetings against Nicolas Almagro 6-4, 6-3, 6-1 to extend his record to 68-1 at the clay-court major he has dominated over the past 10 years.

Nadal is attempting to become only the second player in tennis history to win 10 or more trophies at one Grand Slam championship. Australian Margaret Court captured the Australian title on 11 occasions between 1960 and 1973.

The 28 year old will next face Andrey Kuznetsov or Jurgen Melzer in the third round.

Nadal did not appear to be tense in the opener, hitting his groundstrokes with depth and moving up the court quickly for the short ball. He came close to breaking Almagro in the first game, but had to wait until his fellow Spaniard’s next service game before taking control. At 3-5, Almagro saved three set points in a 16-point game before Nadal closed out the 51-minute first set.



Almagro proved to be the flashier shot-maker, but Nadal continued to force the World No. 154 into striking one extra ball and it earned the sixth seed a break in the first game of the second set. Playing close to the baseline, Nadal occasionally struggled for backhand timing but remained solid on serve, saving a break point in both the fourth and sixth games. Almagro's resistance faltered at 2-4, when he was broken to 30 but he kept things interesting by breaking Nadal's serve for the first time for 3-5.

Nadal then won six straight games en route to his 27th match win of the season. Almagro, who sustained a left foot injury 12 months ago that required surgery, could not convert two break point chances at 0-4.The match lasted two hours and 22 minutes.

Nadal had also beaten Almagro at Roland Garros in 2008, 2010 and 2012.