Don’t mess with Nadal on Cl… anywhere

My pick: Nadal, of course
Underdog pick: Robredo

Gonzalez d. Verdasco in 3 tight sets. Not too much of a suprise there but I would say Gonzo was a bit of an underdog.

Ferrer d. Robredo 6-3 6-4. To me, this is by far the biggest upset of the tournament. Not that Ferrer won, but the relatively routine score he did it by. Robredo hurt his hand in a tournament a few weeks back and has not caught his form since. Hopefully he can pull it back before the French starts up.

I know Ferrer has greatness in him, but it’s been a long time since we’ve seen it. Perhaps rather than ragging on Robredo, Ferrer has turned it back on? We’ll see in the next few weeks.

Stepanek has been playing some great ball this entire year. Seeding says this is a minor upset but realistically the difference between 16 and 19 in the world (and these two men right now) is almost nil. Good effort by the Worm verse Stan, but I’m quite suprised he didn’t take down Davydenko… I would have taken Radek or Stan to beat him, I’m wondering if Radek didn’t run out of gas.

I know it’s against Nadal who is a far superior opponent to Stan or Radek, but this is more the result I’ve come to expect from Davy. Absolutely no suprise here, the odds of an upset had to be 1 in ten or worse at this point in time. With a little research you could say “but Jason, Nicolai is 2 for 3 against Nadal, thats not that bad!” However Nadal retired due to knee injury in 08 against Davy, and the other win Davy has was on hard courts in Florida in 08… a MUCH different story than the slow soft clay of Barcelona.

Nice to see Ferrer back in a finals on clay, where he should be. Unfortunately even if he is getting his game back to where it once was… it was never better than Nadal. It wouldn’t be a huge suprise to see three sets here but my guess is Nadal wins in two pretty close ones.

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