Nadal beats Federer on clay again in Hamburg final
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[May 19, 2008]
HAMBURG, Germany (AP)
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Rafael Nadal beat defending champion Roger Federer 7-5, 6-7 (3), 6-3 on Sunday to win the Hamburg Masters and add the only major clay-court title missing from his impressive collection.
It was the reverse of last year's final, when Federer won his fourth title in Hamburg and snapped Nadal's 81-match winning streak on clay.
Nadal rallied from big deficits in the first two sets, although he lost the tiebreaker in the second. He led 4-1 in the third and held on to raise his record against the top-ranked player to 8-1 on clay and 10-6 overall.
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"All the week has been very special for me," Nadal said.
The second-ranked Spaniard has 26 career titles, 21 of them on clay, including the last three French Opens. Nadal also won in Monte Carlo
-- beating Federer in the final -- and Barcelona this year.
"It was a strange match," Nadal said. "Roger made some mistakes in the first set that helped me. ... It was important to win because it was the last big clay-court tournament I never won."
Federer lost his seventh match of the year and has only one title so far, at a relatively minor clay-court tournament in Estoril, Portugal.
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The Hamburg Masters is a major warm-up tournament for the French Open, the only Grand Slam that Federer has not won.
"I could have served a little better; it wasn't my best performance, maybe. I have to go for big serves
-- he is a good return player," Federer said. "It was a fun match."
Federer went into Sunday's final with a 41-match winning streak in Germany and a 9-0 career record in finals on German soil. His last loss in Germany was in 2003.
Federer has been No. 1 since February 2004, but Nadal is the top player on the slower clay surface. Since April 2005, he has lost only twice in 110 matches on clay
-- to Federer last year in the Hamburg final and last week in Rome to Juan Carlos Ferrero, when Nadal was slowed by a painful blister on his foot.
Federer led 5-2 in the first set and wasted two set points before Nadal completed a comeback by winning seven straight games. That gave him the first set and a 1-0 lead in the second.
Federer then won the next four games and went on to lead 5-2, but could not close out the set before the tiebreaker.
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Nadal had a three-hour match Saturday in beating Novak Djokovic in three sets to protect his No. 2 ranking, but he appeared fresher in the third set Sunday.
Serving for the match, Nadal won the first three points and then hit a backhand crosscourt winner. He fell to his knees and looked to the sky.
"I am happy that I won and that I beat the No. 1 in the world and the best player of the year (Djokovic), and that should give me some more confidence for the French Open," Nadal said.
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Nadal became only the third player to own all three clay-court Masters Series titles, in Rome, Monte Carlo and Hamburg.
"He had a great week and a great clay-court season," said Federer, who finished with 41 unforced errors to Nadal's 28.
[Associated Press; By NESHA STARCEVIC]
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This
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