LONDON (TICKER) —Rafael Nadal has carried his dominant claycourt form onto grass.
The top-seeded Spaniard advanced to the final of the Artois Championships on Saturday with a 7-5, 6-4 victory over No. 3 Andy Roddick.
Nadal punctuated a remarkable European claycourt season on Sunday by capturing his fourth straight French Open title with a straight sets victory over world No. 1 Roger Federer. The transition to grass at this Wimbledon tune-up has done little to slow down the 22-year-old lefthander.
“The truth is that I’m feeling comfortable on grass,” said Nadal, who is bidding to become the first Spaniard to win a grass court title since Andres Gimeno at Eastbourne in 1972.
Nadal’s opponent in Sunday’s championship will be third-seeded Novak Djokovic, who steamrolled fourth-seeded Argentine David Nalbandian by a 6-1, 6-0 count.
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Roddick was the defending champion of this event and has won it four of the last five years, but Nadal never gave the American No. 1 an opportunity to gain the upperhand, saving all four break points he faced during the 88-minute encounter.
“It was an important match for me,” Nadal said. “This week has been amazing for me. Just very happy how I’m playing on grass. Especially very happy to play in the final here (at The Queen’s Club).”
In improving to 3-2 all-time against Roddick, Nadal continued what has been a remarkable stretch and finds himself just a win away from his first grasscourt title.
Nadal has won four of his last five events played - all claycourt tournaments - and gone 32-2 since losing to Djokovic in the Indian Wells semifinals during March.
The 27-time champion has an ATP-leading 48 wins this year and is quickly emerging as a trendy pick to deny Federer a sixth straight Wimbledon title in a few weeks.
“(Nadal) hits the ball pretty heavy,” said Roddick, who was appearing in his first tournament in more than a month due to a shoulder injury. “I think he’s learned on grass how to hit it through the court a little bit.
“I think the thing that helps him out the most as far as surface is the grass really helps out his serve. … His serve is a lot better on grass than it would be on a hard court or even a clay court for that matter.”
Djokovic also is candidate to top Federer at the All-England Club, but first he’ll look to exact a measure of revenge on Nadal, who holds an 8-3 edge in their all-time series.
“I’m looking forward to it,” said Djokovic, who retired in the third set against Nadal at Wimbledon last year due to a toe blister. “We played only one time on grass courts, last year Wimbledon. I was unfortunate to finish that way due to injury.
“But this time I feel much more comfortable on this surface, more experienced. I gained a lot of confidence, matured. Physically, I’m much better. So it can be very interesting match.”
The reigning Australian Open champion, Djokovic faced Nadal twice during the claycourt season and on both occasions he stood to overtake the Spaniard as the world No. 2 with a victory.
But in each instance, the third-ranked Serb was unable to solve Nadal - the game’s premier claycourt player.
“(Nadal is) making very few mistakes these days on grass courts, so this can be a trouble for me,” said Djokovic, who is attempting to become the first player this season to win a title on three different surfaces. “I need to step it up and just be aggressive because it’s much better playing him on the faster surfaces than on his favorite, clay.”
Djokovic was dominant in his semifinal win over Nalbandian, winning 12 straight games to close the match in 48 minutes.
“Having these kind of performances, these easy victories, is always good before the finals,” Djokovic said. “Honestly, I wasn’t expecting such an easy match. Knowing that Nalbandian has a lot of experience and he loves to play on this surface. … I was preparing for a tough match.”
First prize is $133,000.
SOURCE: Yahoo
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