By Chris Oddo | Friday, February 27, 2015
Rafael Nadal is back in Buenos Aires for the first time in ten years and anything other than a title would be a bitter disappointment for the king of clay.
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Nadal made sure that there was no bitterness on Friday as he rolled past hometown favorite Federico Delbonis with ease, 6-1, 6-1, to set up a meeting with Carlos Berlocq on Saturday.
Nadal was not in vintage form at the onset, but Delbonis was his own worst enemy for much of the match, and the Argentine quickly fell behind 5-0 despite matching the Spaniard in many rallies. Though Nadal didn’t produce depth on his ground strokes as often as he would have liked, his movement was electric and he blanketed the court, making it difficult for Delbonis to find open space.
After Delbonis held to close to 5-1, Nadal served out an opener that saw the Argentine manage only three winners against 18 unforced errors.
It was more of the same in the second set, and Delbonis twice was broken on points that saw him fail to put away easy sitters in the forecourt.
Nadal brought the crowd to life in the sixth game of the set when he won a breathtaking exchange that saw him recover after being pulled off the court to close with a brilliant defensive slice from the back of the court.
From that moment Nadal’s confidence only grew and he closed out Delbonis with the crowd cheering wildly as he hammered a forehand down the line winner.
Nadal will face Carlos Berlocq in Saturday’s semifinal. The Spaniard, who passed Boris Becker to move into tenth place on that ATP’s all-time win list, can tie legend Guillermo Vilas with 46 clay-court titles if he wins in Buenos Aires.
Saturday’s other semifinal will feature Nicolas Almagro and Juan Monaco. Almagro improved to 7-1 against Tommy Robredo with a 6-3, 6-2 win over the second seed, while Monaco edged 3rd-seeded Pablo Cuevas, 7-6(1), 6-7(4), 6-4.