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Nadal defeats Ferrero at Swedish Open
Top-seeded Rafael Nadal beat Juan Carlos Ferrero in straight sets Friday to reach the semifinals at the Swedish Open. The French Open champion, a quarterfinal loser the past two years in this clay-court tournament, beat his fellow Spaniard 6-3, 6-3. It was the toughest test so far for the 19-year-old Nadal, who has won three straight without dropping a set. He had lost just eight games in his first two matches.
"When you look at the scoreboard it said 6-3, 6-3, but it was not so easy. It was very tough — my best match in the tournament so far." Nadal will play another Spaniard, Tommy Robredo, in Saturday's semifinals. The third-seeded Robredo rallied from a set down to defeat sixth-seeded Mikhail Youzhny of Russia 3-6, 6-4, 6-3. Also reaching the final four was Jiri Vanek of the Czech Republic, who ousted Oscar Hernandez of Spain 6-4, 6-2. After waiting for about two hours because of a mid-afternoon thunderstorm, Nadal broke Ferrero for the first time in the match to lead 5-3 after his opponent's forehand sailed wide on break point. Nadal then easily held serve to close out the set. Ferrero, the 2003 French Open champion, had two break points to lead 3-1 in the second set, but Nadal saved both. Nadal broke Ferrero again to lead 4-3 after hitting a perfect forehand down the line. With Ferrero serving to stay in the match at 3-5, Nadal had two match points. He missed the first, but then hit a forehand winner to end it as another thunderstorm approached. The last quarterfinal between two-time defending champion Mariano Zabaleta of Argentina and Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic was halted because of rain. Nadal improved his record to 52-8 this year.
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