Nadal scrapes past Dimitrov; Fognini shocks Gasquet

As dusk fell on a cloudy day in Monte Carlo, Rafael Nadal was drawn into a battle to save territory. The Spaniard, who was handed a French police badge on Wednesday, found himself dealing with a young pirate threatening to usurp his long held crown. Grigor Dimitrov, the precociously talented Bulgarian, almost succeeded too, till a cramp intervened to dampen his prospects. In the end, Nadal came through possibly his biggest test at the Monte Carlo Rolex Masters since his first title in 2005 by the tiniest of margins. Nadal needed well over two hours to overcome a stiff challenge 6-2, 2-6, 6-4 to reach the semi-finals.

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Nadal’s next opponent, also needed three sets to get past his occasional training partner Stanislas Wawrinka after losing the first set. Tsonga prevailed over Wawrinka 2-6, 6-3, 6-4 after a stiff battle that lasted two hours and 11 minutes. The other semi-final will be between world No. 1 Novak Djokovic and Fabio Fognini. The Italian was stunningly brilliant in his match against Richard Gasquet as he sailed to a comfortable 7-6(0), 6-2 victory. Djokovic was troubled in parts, but Jarkko Nieminen lacked the tools to prevent the Serbian from running away to a 6-4, 6-3 victory.

Nadal gave the packed Central Court barely a hint of the troubles that lay in his path – getting off the blocks in a hurry. The first set played out to script – Nadal was serving at an incredible 95% and took just 31 minutes to race ahead to a one set lead. The Bulgarian realised quickly that the drawn out duels from behind the baseline were doing him no good. Nadal was more than happy to engage the young man, before closing out with a thundering forehand to the fringes of the deuce court.

Instead of reeling from the first set loss, Dimitrov chose to alter the ingredients and change the pace of the game. He drew Nadal away from his comfort zone by the baseline, making smart use of the drop shot to shorten points and gain better control. The changed tactics brought immediate results for the young man, who broke twice to take the second set and ring the warning bells for the serial champion. In fact, the tactics were working so well that Dimitrov, who managed to win just 10 of 23 points on his serve in the first, lost only four points on his serve in the second set.

A visibly peeved Nadal tightened his game in the final set, but Dimitrov was serving first and he had no real problem staying ahead on serve. At least till the ninth game, where the match took an irreversible turn. Serving for a 5-4 lead, Dimitrov developed cramps in his left thigh and broke a string on one point in between dealing with the inside out forehand of Nadal that was pummelling his backhand. Eventually, Dimitrov succumbed when he sliced a backhand into the net to surrender the crucial break. Nadal served out the match with an ace, but not before a limping Dimitrov had time to save a match point with a ferocious forehand winner.

Nadal will be a relieved man – he made 36 unforced errors and only 18 winners – to seal a spot in the semi-finals after looking as close to defeat as he has in the past ten years since that loss to Guillermo Coria in 2003. Dimitrov, though, was eager to learn from the loss – “Even though I lost the first set, I didn’t lose my composure on court, and that helped me win the second,” said Dimitrov, who won just as many points (79) as Nadal. “Eventually when the third started, I felt quite comfortable playing. I actually started rallying with him much more from the baseline, which I think I shouldn’t have done that too much. It’s a good lesson to learn.” If he can take those lessons to court and keep his head over those powerful shoulders, it will not be long before Dimitrov is on the right side of these matches.

Tsonga, who was behind the baseline on two thirds of the points in the first set, changed tactics at the beginning of the second set. He stepped inside the court and took the ball earlier to attack far more in the second by stepping inside the court much more to force Wawrinka to rush his strokes. The dynamics of the game altered significantly with the depth on his ground strokes. Tsonga earned the first break of his match in the fourth game of the second set and that was enough to help the Frenchman serve out for the set at 5-3. Tsonga faced a couple of break points, but survived with typically aggressive responses before he took his first set point to even the match. The final set remained evenly poised till Tsonga broke the deadlock in the seventh game when he converted his first opportunity in the decider.

Serving to stay in the match, Wawrinka showed resolve to save three match points before forcing Tsonga to serve out for the match. Tsonga did so with minimal fuss, before leaping into the air at reaching his first ATP Masters Series semi-final since Paris in November 2011. “It’s an incredible challenge,” said Tsonga looking ahead to his match against Nadal. “He won eight times here. Anything I might achieve will be just a bonus for me. I have no longer any pain in my legs because I know I’m going to play a player that’s a lot better than I am on clay. But I do have some weapons. I have everything to win and nothing to lose.”

A double fault at an inopportune time in the tenth game allowed Gasquet his first set point, but Fognini escaped through some alacrity at the net. Fognini earned a break point in the next game with a brilliant drop shot that left Gasquet stranded. Under pressure, the Frenchman unleashed an aesthetic treat – the one handed backhand down the line winner that was at once effective for its owner and delightful to the spectator.

Not to be outdone, Fognini held to love and took the set into a breaker. Energised by a sudden bout of intensity, he struck Gasquet like a thunderbolt – reeling point after point, before clinching the set with his eleventh consecutive point, a service winner that had enough spin on it to send the return from Gasquet wide off the court. It was an amazingly lopsided end to an otherwise competitive set. Fognini’s 1-2 punch consisted of a powerful forehand blow that drew Gasquet deep beyond the baseline, before a deft drop shot left him squirming in pain. The swing in momentum was as sudden as it was apparent and it turned decisive when Gasquet fell to 0-40 in the sixth game. He saved two of those points, but eventually the Italian snared the break to go up 4-2.

Serving to stay in the match against a rampant opponent, Gasquet succumbed at the second match point when he sent a routine backhand into the bottom of the net. The Italian was dominant from the twelfth game of the first set – his 37 winners one too many for the Frenchman who could only compile 14 in response. It was a second straight top 10 win for Fognini, who had eliminated Tomas Berdych in the third round. The Italian’s reward for his heroics is an even tougher challenge against the world No.1 in the semi-finals on Saturday.