tennis

Nadal beats Nishikori to win Barcelona Open

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If Nishikori could have converted more break points 3/13, it would have been a different story , let Nadal off the hook, Nadal was already confident from his masters win in Monte Carlo, but Kei definently had the game to win his 3rd Barcelona 500, he's the only non spaniard to have won this tournament in the last 13 years, If he can stay fit and healthy, should go very deep at the french... Allez Kei!!!!

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Agreed.

I have only watched the 1st set, so can't comment on the 2nd set yet, but...

There was the exchange of breaks in the 4th and 5th games to bring the score level at 3-3, but it was odd to watch knowing the result, because Nishikori was putting Nadal under a lot of pressure and looking likely.

Nadal was down 0-40 in one game, and 0-30 in his next service game before ultimately holding serve. Nishikori had a clear chance to take one of those break chances, but after dictating the point he hit a relatively easy winner chance long/wide (over-eagerness?), which turned out to be one of those small moments that decides a match.

Then despite having largely dictated play, at 4-5 and 30-30 he lost a couple of points on his serve and Nadal had stole the 1st set, against the run of play really. But it's those individual moments that decide close matches, and that's the difference between the big four and the rest. There doesn't appear to be a huge adjustment required from Nishikori to add to his win count against Nadal.

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