CINCINNATI, (Reuters) – Rafa Nadal continued his outstanding hardcourt form beating John Isner 7-6 7-6 in the final of the Western and Southern Open yesterday, setting up the Spaniard as the red-hot favourite heading into the U.S. Open.
Unbeaten on the surface in 15 matches this year and coming off a win in Montreal, the third ranked Nadal, who will move up to number two today, won back-to-back hardcourt finals on consecutive weeks for the first time in his career.
“It means a lot, being able to win two straight titles, two Masters 1000 on hard back-to-back is just amazing for me,” Nadal told reporters. “I never did something like this in all my career, so it was an emotional moment for so many different reasons.
Nadal needed nearly two hours on a muggy centre court to tame the towering in-form American, who had knocked off three top 10 players, including world number one Novak Djokovic, to earn his spot in the final. But the big-hitting Isner had no answers for the relentless Nadal, who has now claimed nine titles from 12 events this season.
It was the 59th win of Nadal’s career but first in nine tries on the Cincinnati hardcourts.
Isner, who has traditionally saved his best for the home crowd with 14 of the his 16 career ATP Tour final appearances coming in the U.S., had the capacity crowd in his corner and bombarded Nadal with 11 aces but could not crack the Spaniard’s defences failing to convert any of three break chances.
Nadal played the entire match without a single break opportunity against Isner but came up big in both tiebreaks taking the first set 10-8.
