Dull encounter ends in Nadal victory
Rafael Nadal came through one of Queen's dullest matches to seal his place in the Artois Championships semi-finals.
Spaniard Nadal took on Croatian Ivo Karlovic on a Sunny afternoon in London on centre-court in what turned out to be a rather predictable encounter and not one which any neutral would have enjoyed.
An upset appeared to be on the cards when Karlovic took the first set in a tie-breaker.
With neither player able to hold serve and at 6-6 it was hard to see where the breakthrough was going to come from. It took one mistake from Nadal which handed the first set to the 6ft 10" Karlovic, double faulting with the scores at 3-3 in the breaker.
With the tempo snail-paced and Nadal unable to create any rallies against his opponent who, although brilliant on serve is very weak when facing serve, it would have been very simple for the Spaniard to loose concentration and capitulate knowing that, for victory he would have to take the match into a third set.
Nadal is not one of those players though. His mental game is just as strong as his left handed forehand and the following sets proved that betting on Nadal for Wimbledon could well be a shrewd move.
He kept his composure and concentration as a number of Karlovic's total 35 aces rained down on him and held serve in an even more convincing fashion than Karlovic.
Spaniard Nadal took on Croatian Ivo Karlovic on a Sunny afternoon in London on centre-court in what turned out to be a rather predictable encounter and not one which any neutral would have enjoyed.
An upset appeared to be on the cards when Karlovic took the first set in a tie-breaker.
With neither player able to hold serve and at 6-6 it was hard to see where the breakthrough was going to come from. It took one mistake from Nadal which handed the first set to the 6ft 10" Karlovic, double faulting with the scores at 3-3 in the breaker.
With the tempo snail-paced and Nadal unable to create any rallies against his opponent who, although brilliant on serve is very weak when facing serve, it would have been very simple for the Spaniard to loose concentration and capitulate knowing that, for victory he would have to take the match into a third set.Nadal is not one of those players though. His mental game is just as strong as his left handed forehand and the following sets proved that betting on Nadal for Wimbledon could well be a shrewd move.
He kept his composure and concentration as a number of Karlovic's total 35 aces rained down on him and held serve in an even more convincing fashion than Karlovic.
Although the Croatian faced just two break points, Nadal did not once have to save a service game throughout the encounter.
The second set went with serve once again but this time Nadal took his chances.
Hieroglyphics are easier to read than Karlovic's serve, such is his ability to simply send the ball over the net without any significant changes in position but as the game progressed Nadal appeared to read subtle differences in the Karlovic serve which allowed him to return the World number 20's service, building rallies and sending a couple of truly brilliant forehands past Karlovic to take the second set 7-5 in the tiebreak.
The third set was a carbon copy of the third and sports writers everywhere must have struggled to find any real highlight following the result, both players were playing as though they would take a tie-break from the start.
When the inevitable happened, Nadal took the game by the scruff of the neck and on match point fired in a serve which Karlovic could only send into the bottom of the net to the obvious relief of the World number two.
Nadal will now play Andy Roddick in his first ever Queens semi-final and if he can defeat yet another big server he will take on either Novak Djokovic or David Nalbandian in the final on Sunday.
Hieroglyphics are easier to read than Karlovic's serve, such is his ability to simply send the ball over the net without any significant changes in position but as the game progressed Nadal appeared to read subtle differences in the Karlovic serve which allowed him to return the World number 20's service, building rallies and sending a couple of truly brilliant forehands past Karlovic to take the second set 7-5 in the tiebreak.
The third set was a carbon copy of the third and sports writers everywhere must have struggled to find any real highlight following the result, both players were playing as though they would take a tie-break from the start.
When the inevitable happened, Nadal took the game by the scruff of the neck and on match point fired in a serve which Karlovic could only send into the bottom of the net to the obvious relief of the World number two.
Nadal will now play Andy Roddick in his first ever Queens semi-final and if he can defeat yet another big server he will take on either Novak Djokovic or David Nalbandian in the final on Sunday.
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