Game, set and splash as Rafa reigns supreme

Knowing he is still far from his best, Rafael Nadal just kept grinding it out.

He found a way Sunday to overcome lost opportunities in the Barcelona Open final and escape defeat while facing a red-hot opponent. Nadal won his first title of the year, squandering a couple of match points and then saving one on his way to beating Stefanos Tsitsipas 6-4, 6-7(6), 7-5.

"The title means a lot more to me, playing it with an audience after the year that we have had," said Nadal, who also had words for his rival.

"Stefanos is an incredible opponent, the number one of the year, and I knew how hard the final was going to be. It has everything, and it is a very important victory for me," he continued.

Nadal secured his record 12th title at the clay-court tournament by converting on his third match point to cap a satisfying victory. It had been a lackluster start to the season for the third-ranked Nadal after he didn't play much last year amid the coronavirus pandemic.

"It's the work of every day," Nadal said. "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 three hours and 38 minutes, making it the longest best-of-three set ATP final since stats started being tracked in 1991.It was also the longest best-of-three ATP match so far this year.

It was Nadal's seventh title in the last 10 editions of the Barcelona Open, and 12th in 16 editions. The tournament was not played last year because of the pandemic.

Nadal called it "probably the toughest final" he had to play in Barcelona. "I never played a final like this in this tournament," he said. "It means a lot to me. It was an important victory."

Nadal also needed three sets to advance in his first two matches in Barcelona. He was coming off a loss to Andrey Rublev in the quarterfinals of the Monte Carlo Masters, a tournament that Tsitsipas won in a final against Rublev.

Tsitsipas, who had not lost a set on his way to the final in Barcelona, had beaten Nadal in the quarterfinals of the Australian Open.

Nadal was behind from the start but won four straight games to take the first set. The top-seeded Spaniard got off to another slow start in the second set and needed another late break. He wasted two match points at 5-4, then saved three consecutive break points in the following game.

Tsitsipas converted on his third set point of the tiebreaker to force a third set. The Greek then squandered a match point when 5-4 ahead. Nadal survived, winning three straight games for the title.

Second-seed Tsitsipas was seeking his 27th win this season to surpass Rublev as the top winner on the men's circuit.

The 34-year-old Nadal has won all 12 finals he reached in Barcelona. He dominated the tournament in his home country from 2005-09,2011-13 and 2016-18. He lost in the 2019 semifinals to eventual champion Dominic Thiem.

The 20-time Grand Slam winner will be back in action at next month's ATP Masters 1000 tournaments in Madrid and Rome and will look to carry the momentum into the French Open, where the defending champion will be seeking a record-extending 14th Roland Garros title.

Agencies and Xinhua