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Nadal Leads Top Seeds Into Stuttgart Semis; Scores Historic Win
Stuttgart, Germany
July 22nd, 2005
ATPTennis.com
Top seeded Rafael Nadal, No. 2 seed Nikolay Davydenko and No. 3 seed Gaston Gaudio advanced to the semifinals of the Mercedes Cup in Stuttgart on Friday, as did unseeded Jarkko Nieminen.
Nadal won his 32nd consecutive match on clay when he defeated Tomas Zib, surpassing Bjorn Borg, Guillermo Coria and Mats Wilander for the sixth longest clay court winning streak. He now has the most consecutive clay wins since Thomas Muster won 40 straight in 1995. (see chart at bottom of page).
The 19-year-old Spaniard downed Zib 6-2, 6-1 and moved into his ninth semifinal of the year where he is undefeated.
He is second only to World No. 1 Roger Federer in titles won this year with seven, all of which have come on clay. He has won his last five clay-court tournaments, including Bastad two weeks ago.
Nadal will face unseeded Jarkko Nieminen of Finland for a spot in the finals. Nieminen defeated Andreas Seppi, Italy, 6-2, 6-3 to reach his second semifinal of the year (Munich).
In the other half of the draw, No. 2 seed Nikolay Davydenko, Russia, and No. 3 seed Gaston Gaudio, Argentina, advanced to a semifinal meeting.
Davydenko stopped No. 11 seed Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic 6-4, 6-2. This was his second win over Berdych this year.
Gaudio outgrinded countryman Mariano Zabaleta 6-4, 1-6, 6-2 to move ahead in their series 3-2. With the win, Gaudio reached his sixth semifinal this year where he is undefeated. Gaudio has defeated Davydenko in all four previous meetings, all of which have been on clay.
What the players said:
Nadal: "I think I played a very good match having a lot of confidence. I was in control all the time, which is good for the confidence. Every match is difficult and different. I try to play my best in every match."
About playing Nieminen
"I've never played against him but he is a tough player, who plays well. He has confidence now after winning three difficult matches.It will be a difficult match and I hope to play my best."
Nieminen: "I was playing very solid, moving very well. Sometimes I was a little too passive. In the second set I started to move backwards but otherwise I was really satisfied with how I played. I changed the tempo and that worked very well."
"I'm not so tired despite playing a lot of three-set matches this week, it was good to get a shorter match today."
About playing Nadal
"It will be a nice challenge. He is the best player on clay by far at the moment and has won so many tournaments, so I have nothing to lose. Tomorrow is my birthday so hopefully I can play well."Gaudio:
"We know each other so well. We used to play when we were kids. He knows exactly what I am going to do and I know what he is going to do during the match. We always have tough matches like today."
"He was playing unbelievable in the second set, going for every shot, hitting harder and harder. It was very tough."
About playing Davydenko
"He has been playing great tennis during this year. It's going to be really difficult tomorrow. He came here with a lot of confidence, having just won in Davis Cup. It's going to be difficult and a tough match for sure.�
Longest Clay Court Winning Streaks in the Open Era
Wins Player Streak Duration
53 Guillermo Vilas May 1977 - September1977
46 Bjorn Borg October 1977 - May 1979
40 Thomas Muster February 1995 - June 1995
38 Thomas Muster August 1995 - April 1996
36 Ilie Nastase April 1973 - October 1973
32 Rafael Nadal April 2005 - present
31 Bjorn Borg May 1979 - March 1980
31 Guillermo Coria July 2003 - May 2004
31 Mats Wilander September 1982 - May 1983
28 Bjorn Borg May 1974 - October 1974
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