David beats Almagro, now faces Nadal

(EFE)

In his third-round match today, David needed just above an hour to defeat Nicolas Almagro 6-4, 6-3. Wheras he had his problems with Almagro's serve in their previous two encounters, David broke the Spaniard four times in the course of the match, while dropping his own serve twice. It was David's first victory over Almagro on clay, their match record is now tied at 2-2.
In tomorrow's quarterfinal, David will now face Rafael Nadal, the "King of Clay". They have met three times so far, with David winning their first two encounters (Masters Madrid & Paris 2007) and Nadal prevailing earlier this year at Indian Wells, after David failed to convert 5 match points.
But tomorrow's match will be their first one on clay...


Set 1
After an easy hold for a 1-0 lead, David immediately broke Almagro, converting his very first break point, 2-0. But once again, David couldn't gain any momentum, being up a break. A double fault at 15-15 in the next game was the first sign of trouble. And it ended with the immediate re-break for Almagro, which he followed up by holding to love and levelling the score at 2-2. David's next game went from 40-0 briefly back to deuce but he managed to avoid further trouble, won the next two points and now led 3-2. With Almagro now serving again, the scoreboard (which seemed quite erratic today) got stuck at 15-30 for a while... And then suddenly went to break, 4-2 for David. Trying to consolidate this break, David again struggled a bit, not making too many first serves. But he won two really important points on his second serve, the one that set up the game point and the one that gave him the 5-2 lead. Almagro easily held for 5-3, forcing David to serve for the set. The game began with 0-15 but then the scoreboard again skipped a couple of points, two in this case and both for David, 30-15. At 40-15, he had 2 set points, the second of which he converted. 6-3

Set 2
Almagro served first in this set, which started with a series of quick, easy holds from both. At 2-2, Almagro was the first to struggle on serve, finding himself down 15-30. Once again the scoreboard froze at that score... By the time it moved again, David was once again up a break and leading 3-2. And this time, he extended his lead to 4-2 by holding his serve to love. In the following game, Alamagro quickly went down 0-30, then seemed to recover but in the end couldn't prevent another break point for David. Who converted it promptly, just like he did with every single break point he had in this match (as the statistics show). In this case it gave David the double break and at 5-2 the chance to serve for the match. Throughout this set, David had never lost more than one point on his serve. But at that moment, once again his first serve (and probably his nerves) deserted him. He quickly went down 0-40, managed to save the first two break points but Almagro took the third, 5-3. And then held his serve, 5-4. But as David had initially leading by a double break, he now had a second chance to serve for the match. And this time, he kept his nerve - and served it out to love. 6-4.

It's clear that David did find a way of handling Almagro's serve in this match. And he won more points both on first and on second serve than the Spaniard. But without having seen the match, it's impossible to tell how dangerous Almagro's serve really was today. However, looking at the numbers, David seems to have been a little more stable on serve today. (Apart from one bad service game per set.) And this victory should give him confidence.
But will that, can that possibly be enough for tomorrow...


Quotes from David after the match

"I felt better today than yesterday. The match was quite quick without a lot of long rallies, which helped me. I didn't hit many unforced errors, and although I can improve, today I felt I played pretty well."

"I'd like to play against Nadal, it will be an attractive match. Apart from being a friend, Rafa is a great competitor. If you don't play your best level against him, you've got no chance. We've never played on clay, but the fact is that very few people can beat him."
(from the tournament website)


Match Stats...
1st serve: 56%
Aces: 3
DFs: 1
BP Conversion: 4/4
Points won on 1st serve: 78%
Points won on 2nd serve: 52%


(Jasper Juinen/Getty Images)


(AP Photo)


(Reuters Pictures)


(EFE)