Tennis Atlantic

Barcelona/Bucharest Recap

By Steen Kirby, TennisEast Coast.com

 
ATP Barcelona:
 
Rafael Nadal extended his amazing winning streak in the month of April to 77 matches, taking the Barcelona title once again over David Ferrer in grinding fashion 7-6 7-5.  In addition to the win streak, he also becomes the 1st man to ever win 2 tournaments 7 times in a row (Monte Carlo and Barcelona).
 
Nadal had an easy week, rolling over fellow Spaniard Guillermo Garcia-Lopez, former USC standout Robert Farah of Colombia, top 10 player Janko Tipsarevic and a thrashing of compatriot Fernando Verdasco that bared little resemblance to some of their more memorable encounters (AO 2009), before toppling Ferrer in the all-Spanish final today.  Verdasco had taken out Steve Darcis, Kevin Anderson and Kei Nishikori, who was forced to retire during their match before running into the Nadal steamroller.
 
Ferrer had another fine performance on clay that was spirited but once again fell short against Rafa.  He beat Filip Krajinovic, who had notched his first ATP win since coming back from shoulder surgery in the previous round over wild card Inigo Cervantes. Then came the win against always-dangerous Albert Montanes, who had knocked off 15 seed Bernard Tomic in the previous round.  He then played a quarterfinals thriller against countryman Feliciano Lopez where he saved 3 match points and survived a 2nd set tiebreak after losing the 1st set, finally triumphing 6-7 7-6 6-3 after a dejected Lopez faded in the 3rd set.  It took him 2 tiebreaks to finish off surprise semi-finalist Milos Raonic in the semis.
 
Raonic, the 11 seed, started off his surprise run in Barcelona taking out one of the 3 Colombians in the draw Alejandro Falla. Next up was veteran Russian Igor Andreev, then 6 seed Nicolas Almagro, and an upset of 2 seed Andy Murray to reach the semis.  Murray had played good matches against Sergiy Stakhovsky and Santiago Giraldo, but he struggled against the big serving Raonic and continues his inconsistent play on clay.
 
The Polish duo of Mariusz Fyrstenberg and Marcin Matkowski won the Barcelona doubles title over home favorites Marcel Granollers and Marc Lopez.

 
 
 
ATP Bucharest
Top seed Gilles Simon took the title in Bucharest with a  6-4 6-3 victory over Italian Fabio Fognini.
 
Simon was in control all week, notching victories over Dudi Sela,  Lukasz Kubot and German Matthias Bachinger, a surprise semifinalist.

 
Bachinger, who notched wins over Filippo Voldari, 4 seed Viktor Troicki, and fellow German Daniel Brands to reach the semis. He was joined by another surprise semifinalist,  23-year-old qualifier Attila Balazs of Hungary (ranked outside the top 400), who knocked off Lukas Lacko, Potito Starace, “X-man” Xaiver Malisse (who himself had knocked off the defending champion and 2 seed Florian Mayer of Germany in the previous round) before he fell to Fognini.  To reach the final, Fognini took out 5 seed Marcos Baghdatis, 6 seed Andreas Seppi and Balazs.
 
It will be interesting to see if all these players can build upon their performances in Bucharest and make some more noise during the clay court season.  Simon is another Roland Garros dark horse pick who has been playing some of his best clay court tennis so far.
 
Top seeds Robert Lindstedt and Romania’s own Horia Tecau won the doubles title in Bucharest over Jeremy Chardy and Lukasz Kubot. 
 
In other news and notes, American Andrey Kuznetsov (Russian by birth) won the Napoli challenger and Brian Baker will take on Augustin Gensse in the Savannah Challenger final.  Baker, who continues his comeback from retirement, also earned the French Open Wild Card and will be making an appearance in the main draw at Roland Garros.
 
The ATP world tour now heads to Munich, Belgrade and Estoril.