Nadal Extends Clay Winning-Streak to 30; Scores 100th Match Victory
Mercedes Cup
Stuttgart, Germany
July 20th, 2005
Rafael Nadal continued his dominance on clay as he breezed past American qualifier Hugo Armando 6-1, 6-2 on Wednesday at the Mercedes Cup in Stuttgart. The reigning Roland Garros champion claimed his 30th consecutive clay-court victory and scored his 100th career match win.
Nadal is one win away from tying Bjorn Borg, Guillermo Coria and Mats Wilander for the second most consecutive wins on clay (31). Thomas Muster leads all players with 40 straight clay-court wins that lasted from February to June of 1995.
Nadal, the No. 1 seed, has won seven titles this year, all on clay. He�s currently ranked No. 2 in the INDESIT ATP 2005 Race.
The lefty will take on fellow Spaniard Fernando Verdasco for a spot in the quarterfinals.
Nikolay Davydenko, who reached the semifinals here last year, defeated Spaniard Ruben Ramirez Hidalgo 6-4, 6-1 to advance to the third round. The second seeded Davydenko is tied for fifth with fellow Russian Marat Safin in the INDESIT ATP 2005 Race.
Earlier this year, Davydenko won his fifth career singles title in St. Poelten and reached his first Grand Slam semifinal at Roland Garros.
Coming off his fourth title in Gstaad, No. 3 seed Gaston Gaudio got past wild card Andreas Beck 6-3, 6-3. Gaudio, the 2004 Roland Garros champion, has a 34-7 record on clay this year, having won four titles (Vina del Mar, Buenos Aires, Estoril, Gstaad).
Tommy Robredo, the No. 4 seed, is making his fifth appearance in Stuttgart, with his best finish coming as a finalist in 2003 (l. to Guillermo Coria).
Robredo ousted Italian Potito Starace 6-7(4), 6-3, 6-2 in second round action and will next face Andreas Seppi for the first time.
The sixth seeded Jiri Novak advanced with a 4-6, 6-4, 6-0 win over Razvan Sabau. Novak will play Jarkko Nieminen, who upset No. 10 seed Jurgen Melzer, for a spot in the quarterfinals. This will be the first meeting between the two.v Also advancing were Germans Rainer Schuettler and Alexander Waske. Schuettler defeated doubles partner and No. 7 seed Mikhail Youzhny 7-5, 6-3, while wild card Waske upset No. 13 seed Jose Acasuso 7-5, 6-4.
What the pkayers said:
Nadal: �I�m happy about my first match. I think I played at a good level today.�
About being a favorite:
�No, all players have a chance to win the tournament. People think I�m the favorite because I won the last tournaments. But I know that every match is difficult.�
Robredo: �The first set was difficult. The ball bounced so high and he was serving so good. I lost one set, but then I was playing my game. I�m feeling great, I got confidence. I�m trying to win as many matches as possible.�
About playing Andreas Seppi:
�He�s a great player. But well, I�m gonna try to play my best, and I�ll talk with Alberto Martin to see what mistakes he did.�
**Please do not reproduce without giving credit to the original source and VamosRafael.com.**
Return to VamosRafael.com.
Return to VamosRafael.com Articles.