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By Chris Oddo | Saturday August 1, 2015

There was a lot more than revenge on the mind of Rafael Nadal this week in Hamburg. There was the business of building confidence for the last leg of the 2015 season so that he may make a push for the year’s final major and a bid for the year-end championships in London. For Nadal, his 7-5, 7-5 victory over Fabio Fognini in the bet-at-home Open final was more about getting closer to his best form than exacting revenge for two consecutive losses to Fabio Fognini.

More: Theim Nabs Third Title of 2015

But that doesn’t mean the victory wasn’t sweet.

2015 has been fraught with chills and spills for the once-dominant Nadal, but on Sunday in Hamburg there were plenty of glimpses of the swashbuckling Spaniard’s glistening game.

There were also visions of disarray, but on this hopeful Sunday, Nadal swept all doubts aside along with the testy Fognini to claim his 67th career title and the biggest of his disenchanting 2015 campaign.

“I lost the last two times against him, so I knew it was going to be a tough one,” said Nadal, according to ATPWorldTour.com. “I think I had a great attitude the whole match, very positive, fighting for every ball. I had some tough moments on court, lost opportunities, but every time I came back and I kept fighting with the right mentality. I’m very happy for the victory. It is an important victory for me.”


Fognini had already become just the second player to have ever defeated Nadal on clay multiple times in the same season this April in Barcelona, and on Sunday he landed numerous punches to Nadal’s body but could never strike the big blow.

He failed to convert a break point that would have given him a 6-5 lead in the first set, and in the next game Nadal finally broke through on his fourth set point, hammering a massive return winner to secure the set.

But Fognini wasn’t nearly throwing body blows at Nadal. After falling behind a break he put together a string of jaw-dropping points to run off three games and grab a 4-3 lead.

Nadal broke to level at 4-all, but Fognini answered right back with his fifth break of the day for 5-4.

Fognini, as had been the case in their previous two meetings this season, did so many things right against Nadal. Under pressure and close to losing a handle on the match he took on great risk and executed sublimely, knocking flat, vicious winners that Nadal had no chance at.

If Fognini made one critical mistake it was with his mouth, not his racquet. During the changeover after the ninth game of the second set he began yelling in earnest at Nadal about some wrong that he felt the Spaniard had done him in the previous two games. Nadal appeared surprised at first, then angry. But rather than get mixed up in the altercation on the sidelines, he channeled his intensity into the games that ensued.


He saved two set points in the next game, and after two Fognini errors he broke. In the next game, with Fognini still pushing, he fought off three break points to hold.

With Fognini serving to force a tiebreaker now, Nadal rallied from 40-15 down to take the final four points—and the title.

After the match, Nadal had a brusque exchange with Fognini at the net before he broke into an invigorated celebration, dropping to his knees and tilting his head back with his arms stretched skyward. Maybe there waa a bit of revenge on his mind, after all?


If there was, he would never say. “I’ll keep going with the same mentality and this title helps to be a little bit more calm and add some points to my ranking to try to finish the year in the Top 8 again,” he said.

Notes, Numbers, More Tweets

Nadal improves to 47-8 in clay court finals with the win. He’s now just two clay titles from the all-time record of 49, set by Guillermo Vilas.

Nadal only held serve in 35 of 49 service games for the week in Hamburg (71 percent).

Nadal improves to 16-2 in Hamburg with today’s win.

Despite the loss, Fognini becomes the first Italian to have played in multiple finals at Hamburg. In 2013 he became the first Italian to play the Hamburg final since 1977 (Paolo Bertolucci).

Nadal has now won a title on European clay in each of the last 12 years.



 

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