By Chris Oddo / Thursday, January 2, 2014
Rafael Nadal battled past Ernests Gulbis for the seventh consecutive time to reach the semifinals of the Qatar Exxon Mobil in Doha on Thursday.
Photo Source: AP
Rafael Nadal kept alive his bid for a maiden title at the Qatar Exxon Mobil in Doha with a 7-5, 6-4 victory over Ernests Gulbis on Thursday to reach the semifinals of the ATP 250 event.
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Nadal's seventh consecutive victory (in seven career tilts) over the Latvian was not without the usual complications, as Gulbis, on the strength of some fantastic shotmaking, matched Nadal for the better part of the first set until yielding in the 11th game when he sailed three straight errors to hand the Spaniard the decisive break.
Nadal would serve the first set out then promptly fall down a break and 3-0 in the second set before rallying to take the next two games.
But Gulbis, though looking more wobbly and more frustrated with each passing game, would not go quietly. He continued to push back and even earned a break point and a chance for a 4-2 lead in the sixth game after feathering a sublime dropper in the forecourt.
But Nadal would stiffen his resolve to hold serve, and in the next game after his impossibly good crosscourt backhand passing shot clipped the tape and kissed the line, all a bewildered Gulbis could do was look to the heavens and hope for a bit of divine intervention that would never come.
Nadal would seal the match three games later with a backhand volley winner, one of his 16 winners against 14 unforced errors on the evening.
“He can hit winners from anywhere,” Nadal said after the match in praise of the player who has pushed him on so many occasions but never defeated him. He failed to mention that Gulbis is also capable of hitting an error from anywhere on the court, particularly when trying to attack the stolid defensive game of Nadal, which was smothering throughout the affair.
Many of Gulbis' 38 unforced errors were the result of having to sneak his deadly groundstrokes into windows that might be small enough to trouble the ubiquitous Nadal. Also troubling for the usually strong-serving Latvian was the fact that Nadal had an excellent read on his second serve, which consistently put Gulbis on the defensive.
Nadal would win 17 of 27 points against the Gulbis second serve, and he broke four times on eight opportunities to tilt the match in his favor whenever he needed to.
Nadal advances to face first-time ATP semifinalist Peter Gojowczyk of Germany on Friday. The world No. 162 defeated Dustin Brown in a third-set tiebreaker to become only the fourth qualifier to reach the semis at Doha.
On the other half of the draw, Gael Monfils and Florian Mayer face off with a spot in the final on the line. Monfils crushed Daniel Brands 6-2, 6-1, while Mayer slipped past Victor Hanescu in three tight sets.
Monfils is a four-time semifinalist at Doha, and a two-time finalist. Nadal made his only Doha final appearance in 2010, losing to Nikolay Davydenko in three sets.