By Chris Oddo | Thursday, April 24, 2014
Rafael Nadal put forth a tidy effort in taking down Ivan Dodig, 6-3, 6-3, for his 41st consecutive victory in Barcelona on Thursday.
Photo Source: AP/Manu Fernandez
Rafael Nadal turned in the type of dominant performance that fans at the Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell have come to expect on Thursday, running roughshod over Ivan Dodig, 6-3, 6-3, in 83 minutes.
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The victory marks the eight-time Barcelona champion's 302nd clay-court victory, which moves him past Jose Luis-Clerc and into sole possession of tenth place on the ATP's all-time list. Nadal also ties Arthur Ashe for 11th on the ATP's all-time win list with his 683rd career victory.
“Happy the way that I played today,” said Nadal after the match. “I played a little bit better than yesterday, that's always really positive.”
After struggling through a difficult round-of-32 encounter with Albert Ramos on Wednesday, Nadal was in bullying from from the onset against Dodig. If it wasn't for the elevated tennis of the Croatian this match could have very easily been a blowout from the start, but Dodig held his ground in the early going.
The World No. 37 took advantage of one of Nadal's 11 unforced errors on the day (a forehand that Nadal missed wide) to break back in the sixth game for 3-all.
But Nadal would break back immediately when Dodig capped off a loose game with an ill-timed double-fault, and the match, for all intents and purposes, would never be close again.
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Nadal finished with 15 winners against 11 unforced errors, while Dodig had 12 winners to go with 23 unforced. Perhaps more important was the fact that Nadal used his second serve to great effect on Thursday evening, winning 73 percent of those offerings, while he also managed to win 16 of 25 return points against Dodig's second serve.
It all added up to a relatively one-sided victory for the World No. 1, his third in four career tilts with Dodig, and his 25th in 29 matches in 2014.
Nadal will continue his bid for a record ninth Barcelona title on Friday when he matches up with Nicolas Almagro in the quarterfinals.
Earlier in the afternoon, Almagro avenged a loss in the Houston final to Fernando Verdasco by taking out his compatriot, 6-3, 6-3. In other action, Marin Cilic outlasted Tommy Robredo in three tight sets for his 25th victory of the season and second in a row against the Spaniard, 7-5, 6-7(3), 7-6(5). After falling behind 5-3 in the final-set tiebreaker, Cilic rallied to win the last four points of the match.
Other winners on Thursday in Barcelona were, Ernests Gulbis, Teymuraz Gabashvili, Santiago Giraldo, Philipp Kohlschreiber and Kei Nishikori.