Rafael Nadal moved into the position to become a dual-surface champion at the Stuttgart Open on Saturday with his 6-3, 6-4 grass-court semi-final defeat of Gael Monfils.
Victory in less than 90 minutes on the newly laid grass courts of the pre-Wimbledon event paved a path for Nadal to lift his third in Stuttgart after winning in 2005 and 2007 when the event was played on clay.
But in 2012, officials and orgnanisers at the Weissenhof club made the decision to work with the ATP to switch over to grass as part of an expanded three-week Wimbledon run-up which began this week.
Nadal owns two Wimbledon crowns and also won at Queen’s in his grass glory year of 2008.
The 29-year-old will be bidding for the 66th trophy of his career but only the second this season.
Nadal came through over Monfils on the first of two match points as the French fourth seed sailed a forehand over the baseline.
Unable to find an ace in the contest, Nadal however made no double-faults and saved all four of the break points he faced as he beat Monfils for the 11h time in 13 meetings.
The win was effortless in contrast to the struggles Nadal went through in his first two matches this week, spending a combined five hours on court to win six sets.
“I’m very happy with this performance,” said the Spaniard. “I’m slowly improving on grass. It would be fantastic to win on grass here, but I can only focus on the final and try to play my best.”
HEAVILY-PREGNANT MAURESMO TO TAKE CARE OF ANDY MURRAY AT WIMBLEDON
Andy Murray has been handed a pre-Wimbledon boost after revealing his pregnant coach Amelie Mauresmo will remain part of the world No 3’s team at the All England Club.
Murray had feared Mauresmo would miss the entire grass-court campaign after the Frenchwoman announced earlier this year that she was expecting a child in August.
The 28-year-old Scot has already signed up Jonas Bjorkman to take over for the heavily pregnant Mauresmo and the Swedish coach will work with Murray during the Wimbledon warm-up event at Queen’s Club in west London next week.
Murray had expected that arrangement to continue through Wimbledon, which gets under way on June 29.
But the 2013 Wimbledon champion said on Saturday the 35-year-old Mauresmo, a former female world No 1, has agreed to rejoin his backroom team at the All England Club before taking maternity leave.
“Amelie will be at Wimbledon, Murray told reporters at Queen’s Club on Saturday. “It’s good. I like having her around the tournaments and it’s been a very good start to the year for me.
“Before she is away from the team for a few months, it’s good that her and Jonas can spend some time together.
“I imagine Amelie will take the lead and Jonas can see how we operate.
“We know each other a lot better than this time last year, so I’m sure she will be able to help a lot more.”
Mauresmo’s presence at Wimbledon will only add to the feel-good factor for Murray, who arrives at Queen’s bolstered by his best ever run on clay which included titles in Madrid and Munich and a French Open semi-final appearance.
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