Rafael Nadal overwhelms Andreas Seppi to reach Hamburg Open final

Considering how Rafa didn’t play at the US Open last year, there is a great opportunity for the Spaniard to climb rapidly the rankings after New York.

Rafael Nadal eased into the Hamburg Open quarter-finals Thursday with a 6-4, 7-6 (7/2) win over Jiri Vesely of the Czech Republic as the Spaniard continues to try and resuscitate his flagging season. The 14-time Grand Slam champion, however, broke serve once again in the following game and never looked back, winning nine of the last 11 games of the contest. “To reach the final means earning 300 points, which are very important in the race to London and the ATP World Tour Finals”. I started hitting immediately 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”. Matches like today help to bring you your confidence and your motivation for what you are doing. In general it was a very positive match. “And this year with the up and downs that I’ve had, every improvement is important”.

The 29-year-old Nadal, meanwhile, improved his 2015 record on clay to 25-6 and moved to within one victory of his 47th career title on his favorite surface, which would leave him just two shy of the record held by former Argentine great Guillermo Vilas.

The Italian defeated Lucas Pouille of France 6-2 7-6 and the 28-year-old will be looking to exact revenge on Nadal for having knocked out his fellow compatriot in the semi-final.