Nadal joins Ferrero
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ByEurosport
Published 23/04/2005 at 19:40 GMT
Spain's prodigy Rafael Nadal will meet Juan Carlos Ferrero in the ATP Barcelona final on Sunday after his 7/5 6/2 victory over Radek Stepanek on Saturday. Earlier in the day, Ferrero pulled out an impressive display to march through to the final and outpl
Eurosport
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Teenager Rafael Nadal outgunned Radek Stepanek 7-5 6-2 on Saturday to set up an all-Spanish clash against a revived Juan Carlos Ferrero in the final of the Barcelona Open.
The 18-year-old, who became the youngest winner of a Masters Series event in 15 years after last week's victory in Monte Carlo, brought the 6,000 crowd to its feet with another exhibition of aggressive, high-quality claycourt tennis against his Czech opponent.
FERRERO CONFIRMS
Juan Carlos Ferrero claimed a place in his first ATP final in more than a year with a 7-6 6-1 victory over Russian Nikolay Davydenko in the semi-finals of the Barcelona Open on Saturday.
Ferrero, who beat French Open champion Gaston Gaudio in the quarter-finals, began to find his rhythm midway through the first set, pressuring the Davydenko serve in the seventh game and then breaking in the ninth to go 5-4 up.
The Russian broke back in the following game with a fine backhand pass and earned himself a set point at 6-5 only to see Ferrero produce brilliant baseline defence as he held his serve.
Ferrero piled on the pressure to win the tiebreak 7-1 and then took a 3-0 lead at the start of the second set.
Davydenko crumbled under the pressure and was forced into a string of errors. Ferrero rattled through the second set to earn himself a place in his first final since Rotterdam in February 2004.
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