Nadal beats Kiefer to win Rogers Cup title

[July 28, 2008]  TORONTO (AP) -- Rafael Nadal beat Nicolas Kiefer 6-3, 6-2 on Sunday to win the Rogers Cup, his fifth straight tournament victory.

The second-seeded Spaniard has won 29 consecutive matches.

Kiefer, of Germany, was unseeded and ranks 37th in the world. He was playing in his first ATP final since 2005.

It's Nadal's second Rogers Cup title.

Nadal first broke Kiefer in the fifth game when Kiefer, down 15-40, had Nadal far out of position but gently laid his drop shot into the net.

The players held serve until the ninth game, when Kiefer's double fault gave Nadal the set point.

Kiefer had a chance to break Nadal in the fifth game of the second set, but after going to deuce six times, Kiefer hit a backhand well wide.

That's when Kiefer came unraveled. He double-faulted twice in the next game, then launched a forehand 40 feet into the air and long before Nadal's forehand winner gave him the break.

Nadal took seven of the next nine points to clinch his 30th career title, spreading his arms out and looking to the sky in celebration.

[Associated Press]

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