Barcelona Open: Ferrer opens a door for Nadal, makes hasty exit

The much anticipated duel between Rafael Nadal and David Ferrer has been washed away even before we could warm up to the idea. Dmitry Tursunov threw a spanner in the works at the ATP World Tour 500 – Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell with a gritty 7-5, 3-6, 6-1 victory over the top seeded David Ferrer, who opened a door for Nadal even as he made his hasty exit. Carlos Berlocq had taken Nadal to three sets at the Brasil Open in Sao Paolo recently, but there would be no such drama on Pista Central as the Spaniard rolled to an easy 6-4, 6-2 victory in an hour and 28 minutes. Nadal could return to the top four ahead of the French Open, based on his results at Barcelona, Rome and Madrid.

Ferrer suffered a massive blow to his preparations for the French Open, falling to an unseemly defeat at the hands of Tursunov. 30-year old Tursunov came through the qualifiers, while Ferrer had missed the Monte Carlo Masters due to a thigh injury that surfaced during his loss in the Sony Open finals in Miami. The Russian needed just under two hours to eliminate his fancied opponent in a match strewn with errors. Ferrer was down a break twice in the first set – he was broken to love in the third game, but struck back in the sixth to even the set at 3-3.

A couple of breaks followed immediately thereafter, Tursunov squandering a second break by suffering a love game in the eighth as the set returned on serve at 4-4. The decisive break of the set eventually came in the eleventh as a struggling Ferrer succumbed to surrender the first set. The man from Javea was broken to love again in the first game of the second set and at 2-0, an early exit seemed not that far away. Ferrer though made an admirable recovery, helped equally by a series of errors from the Tursunov racket to break twice and take the second set.

Ferrer courted trouble early in the third set as he fell once again to 0-2 at the beginning of the set. And even though he broke back immediately to drag the set back on serve, he lost four games in a row to surrender the match and head for the exit. “It was the worst match that I’ve played in the last couple of years,” admitted a peeved Ferrer. “I lost the third set too fast. He was better today and more aggressive in the third. I just did not feel good on the court today.” We can only hope that it was a bad day at the office for the normally consistent Spaniard. Tursunov will take on Thomaz Bellucci for a spot in the quarters.

Nadal, buoyed by the news of Ferrer’s exit, swept aside the 63rd ranked Berlocq with consummate ease. The world No.5 won nearly half the points on his opponent’s serve to subject the Argentine to relentless pressure. Berlocq succumbed without a fight as he surrendered four breaks of serve to dispel any hopes of mounting a meaningful challenge to the seven-time champion. The victory was Nadal’s 35th consecutive win in Barcleona, where he has won the title in seven of the past eight years.

The Majorcan needs to make the finals at Barcelona, Rome and Madrid to ensure a move up the rankings and avoid facing one of Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray or Roger Federer before the semis at Roland Garros. Nadal faces Benoit Paire in the third round, after the Frenchman came through in three sets against Pablo Andujar-Alba.

The promising Grigor Dimitrov also made an early exit – Tommy Robredo broke early to take a 3-0 lead over the Bulgarian. And despite being down 1-4, Dimitrov clawed back to level the set at 5-5 only to be broken again in the eleventh game. Robredo took advantage this time to clinch the set in 53 minutes. A dispirited Dimitrov played a lacklustre second set and Robredo put an end to his misery by taking the set and match for the loss of just another game. The Spaniard needed just 79 minutes to complete a well deserved 7-5, 6-1 victory and progress to the next round. The third seeded Tomas Berdych will play Robredo in the third round on Thursday.

The sixth seeded Kei Nishikori was as impressive as he could be in his first outing on clay this season. The Japanese ousted Guillermo Olaso-De La Rica 6-1, 6-3 in an earlier match on Tuesday. It took less than an hour for the constantly improving Nishikori to advance to the third round. If Nishikori wins his next match against Jerzy Janowicz or Albert Ramos, he could come face to face against Nadal in what promises to be a testing encounter both ways.

Milos Raonic looked impressive in his match against Edouard Roger-Vasselin as he charged to victory in an hour and eleven minutes. The Canadian was barely troubled as he did not face a single break point, converting three of his four chances to take an easy 6-4, 6-2 victory and set up an intriguing clash against the unpredictable Ernests Gulbis. Juan Monaco also enjoyed a similarly one sided outing against the disappointing Bernard Tomic. Monaco took each of the five break point chances to race away with a 6-0, 6-2 victory in just 51 minutes to set up a third round encounter against Frenchman Jeremy Chardy. The other third round encounters will feature Nicolas Almagro against Marcel Granollers-Pujol and Martin Klizan over Philipp Kohlschreiber.