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By Chris Oddo | Wednesday, April 23, 2014

 
Rafael Nadal Barcelona

On a day of upsets, Rafael Nadal righted the ship in Barcelona, working his way past a feisty Albert Ramos, 7-6(2), 6-4.

Photo Source: AFP

World No. 1 Rafael Nadal put the kibosh on the best-laid plans of upset-minded Albert Ramos, downing the southpaw Spaniard, 7-6(2), 6-4, to win his 40th consecutive match at the Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell on Wednesday afternoon.

Statisfaction: Rafael Nadal's Barcelona Dominance

“It was a positive victory for me,” Nadal said afterwards. “I feel that I had to suffer, I had to come back from difficult situations.”

Just after his compatriot David Ferrer was knocked out of the draw by a surging Teymuraz Gabashvili (3rd-seeded Fabio Fognini was also ousted), Nadal found himself behind the eight-ball when Ramos stormed out to a break lead in the opening set. Though the eight-time Barcelona champion would right the ship and eventually earn the chance to serve for the set at 6-5, Nadal was broken when the world No. 103 fought back from 30-0 down to win the next four points, sealing the break with a backhand winner down the line.

But just as he has always done in the past in Barcelona (he has now won all five tiebreakers he has played at the event), Nadal would take the tiebreaker in style to grab the lead from Ramos by winning the final five points on the trot.




After trading blows with Nadal in the first eight games of the second set, Ramos finally ran out of steam. He was broken at love in the tenth game, sending a backhand well wide to send Nadal through to his 41st career victory at Barcelona against only one loss.

The victory is Nadal's 20th consecutive straight-sets win in Barcelona—he has now won 41 consecutive sets since dropping a set in the 2008 final to David Ferrer.

But as is usually the case, Nadal was far from satisfied with his performance. "I need to improve everything,” he told ATPWorldTour.com. “I'm working every day to play more aggressively. I need to find the feeling of being dominant in the points. I feel that sometimes I'm hitting balls from good positions and I'm not able to create the right spaces, to find winners. I need to try and find that for the next match."

Nadal will face Ivan Dodig in the third round at Barcelona. Dodig provided another upset on Wednesday when he thrashed 13th-seeded Feliciano Lopez, 6-1, 6-4.

 

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