Nadal outlasts Tsitsipas to win Barcelona Open for twelfth time

Knowing he’s nonetheless removed from his greatest, Rafael Nadal simply stored grinding it out.
He discovered a manner Sunday to beat misplaced alternatives within the Barcelona Open closing and escape defeat whereas dealing with a red-hot opponent. Nadal gained his first title of the yr, squandering a few match factors after which saving one on his solution to beating Stefanos Tsitsipas 6-4, 6-7 (6), 7-5.
Nadal secured his report twelfth title on the clay-court event by changing on his third match level to cap a satisfying victory. It had been a lackluster begin to the season for the third-ranked Nadal after he didn’t play a lot final yr amid the coronavirus pandemic.
“It’s the work of every day,” Nadal mentioned. “It’s about accepting the challenge, it’s about being humble to accept that sometimes you are not playing that well. And you need to fight for it and you need to try to find a solution every day and that’s what I did.”
The match lasted 3 hours, 38 minutes, making it the longest best-of-three set ATP closing since stats began being tracked in 1991. It was additionally the longest best-of-three ATP match up to now this yr.
It was Nadal’s seventh title within the final 10 editions of the Barcelona Open, and twelfth in 16 editions. The event was not performed final yr due to the pandemic.
Nadal referred to as it “probably the toughest final” he needed to play in Barcelona.
“I never played a final like this in this tournament,” he mentioned. “It means a lot to me. It was an important victory.”
Nadal additionally wanted three units to advance in his first two matches in Barcelona. He was coming off a loss to Andrey Rublev within the quarterfinals of the Monte Carlo Masters final week, a event that Tsitsipas gained in a closing towards Rublev.
Tsitsipas, who had not misplaced a set on his solution to the ultimate in Barcelona, had crushed Nadal within the quarterfinals of the Australian Open.
Nadal was behind from the beginning however gained 4 straight video games to take the primary set. The top-seeded Spaniard received off to a different gradual begin within the second set and wanted one other late break. He wasted two match factors at 5-4, then saved three consecutive break factors within the following recreation.
Tsitsipas transformed on his third set level of the tiebreaker to drive a 3rd set. The Greek then himself squandered a match level when 5-4 forward. Nadal survived, profitable three straight video games for the title.
Tsitsipas, the second-seeded participant in Barcelona, was looking for his twenty seventh win this season to surpass Rublev as the highest winner on the boys’s circuit.
The 34-year-old Nadal has gained all 12 finals he reached in Barcelona. He dominated the event in his house nation from 2005-09, 2011-13 and 2016-18. He misplaced within the 2019 semifinals to eventual champion Dominic Thiem.