Rafael Nadal made light work of Italian Andreas Seppi to reach the final of the Hamburg Open and will now face Fabio Fognini, who is chasing an almost unthinkable third clay-court victory over the Spaniard this season.
Nadal, a 14-time grand slam champion, has endured a difficult year. He surrendered his French Open title, suffered a shock defeat by journeyman Dustin Brown at Wimbledon and dropped to No 10 in the world rankings.
He has struggled since being sidelined by injury and illness last year and has only two relatively modest titles to his name in 2015 – Stuttgart and Buenos Aires.
For a player who has made a habit of hoovering up clay-court trophies in his career, Nadal heads into today’s final looking to maintain his record of winning at least one European clay-court title every year since 2004.
Having eased past Seppi 6-1, 6-2 in 80 minutes, Nadal will face Fognini for the third time this season, with the Italian claiming wins in Rio de Janeiro and Barcelona.
“I will try to keep playing well and enjoy today’s victory,” Nadal said. “These are important points for me – 300 points for my goal of qualifying for the World Tour Finals is important. Matches like today help to bring you your confidence and your motivation for what you are doing.
“From the beginning I played great, since the first game that I hit a few winners.
“I was very comfortable on court today, feeling the ball well, with topspin to his backhand and then changing to his forehand down the line – a very important shot for me. In general, it was a very positive match.
“Every victory is important. And this year with the up and downs that I’ve had, every improvement is important.”
Fognini, ranked 32nd in the world, is just the second player to inflict multiple clay-court defeats on Nadal in a single season after world No 1 Novak Djokovic.
The Italian, who won the Hamburg title in 2013, beat qualifier Lucas Pouille 6-2, 7-6 yesterday to reach the final.
Elsewhere, top-seeded David Goffin of Belgium eased to a 6-4, 6-2 win against two-time champion Thomaz Bellucci of Brazil in the Swiss Open semi-finals on Saturday.
In Sunday’s final at Gstaad, the 14th-ranked Goffin will face world No 24 Dominic Thiem of Austria.
Thiem beat second-seeded Feliciano Lopez of Spain 6-3, 6-7, 6-3 to maintain the winning run he started by taking the Croatia Open title last weekend.
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