By Richard Pagliaro | Wednesday, April 22, 2015
Late in the second set, Rafael Nadal's unerring persistence finally caused Nicolas Almagro to crack.
Sailing a backhand beyond the baseline to drop serve for the fifth straight time. Almagro marked that ignominous streak winding up and wacking the ball out of the stadium.
Video: Andre Agassi vs. Maria Sharapova in Stuttgart
It was one of the few times in the set Almagro managed to put the ball out of Nadal's reach.
Eight-time champion Nadal broke Almagro's serve five times in a row and withstood seven break points in a marathon final game, sealing a 6-3, 6-1 victory with an ace.
Nadal will face either 17-year-old former French Open junior champion Andrey Rublev or 13th-seeded Fabio Fognini for a quarterfinal spot on the Barcelona red clay he's treated as a stomping grounds.
Russian qualifier Rublev upset former champion Fernando Verdasco in the first round. The 27-year-old Fognini upset Nadal, 1-6, 6-2, 7-5, in the Rio semifinals earlier this season, scoring his first win over the Roland Garros champion in five career meetings.
Today's Alamagro-Nadal match was a rematch of the 2014 quarterfinals where Almagro beat Nadal for the first time in 11 meetings and handing the champion his second defeat in Barcelona and first since his tournament debut in 2003 when he fell to Alex Corretja.
It was a positive performance from Nadal against an opponent he has dominated though there were some nervous patches as well. Nadal left his backhand short in the court through the first half of the opening set and showed some nerves struggling to create closure in a 21-minute final game before finally finishing off on his fifth match point.
Still, the second seed played a relatively clean match, crunched his forehand with more aggression as the match went on, used the drop shot effectively to exploit his opponent's court positioning, saved eight of nine break points and reeled off 10 of the last 11 games raising his 2015 clay-court record to 11-2.
Rifling a sharp-angled backhand crosscourt, Nadal broke for 4-3 and quickly backed up the break for 5-3.
Former world No. 9 Almagro can't keep up with Nadal in running rallies and repeatedly got himself in trouble trying to force his forehand down the line. Nadal drop-shotted Almagro, read his opponent's drop-shot reply then slid an angled backhand winner crosscourt for a third set point. Almagro saved it, but then but scattered a forehand error and double fault to drop the opening set after 47 minutes.
Committing 10 fewer errors in the opener, Nadal reeled off four games in a row to secure the set.
The second seed could not sustain his roll, briefly losing his concentration and scattering an inside-out forehand to drop serve in the first game of the second set. It was the last game he lost in the match.
The Almagro forehand strayed in the first set and cost him the break in the second. Successive forehand errors gave back the break.
Playing with more confidence and attacking with his forehand, Nadal slid an ace out wide holding for 2-1. As Nadal began pushing Almagro around court more frequently, Almagro tried squeezing shots closer to the line. His accuracy did not match his ambition, however, as Nadal scored a second break for 3-1. When Nadal broke again for 5-1, Almagro belted the ball out of the stadium court then dug in for the long game to follow.
World No. 53 Victor Estrella Burgos earned his first career Top 10 victory. The 34-year-old Dominican broke serve four times upsetting fourth-seeded Marin Cilic, 6-4, 6-4.
"It was my first Top 10 victory and achieving it against Marin is huge, he played a great season last year," Estrella Burgos told the tournament website. "The court is great and fast, I feel very comfortable playing here. A beautiful tournament in every aspect."
Coming off the Monte-Carlo quarterfinals, Cilic struggled to adjust to slow, heavy conditions of Barcelona.
"The conditions didn't suit me as much today," said Cilic. "It was pretty heavy and very tough to put the ball away. There were not too many winners. It went much more in Victor's favor. Overall, I was not too happy with the way I played today. I made a lot of unforced errors. I feel I still need several matches to get my form to a good stage. Obviously, last week was very good, but I can expect some ups and downs in the first part of the season."
In another all-Spanish match, David Ferrer swept wild card Albert Montanes, 6-2, 6-3. The third-seeded Ferrer will face Swedish wild card Elias Ymer next. The teenager saved 10 of 13 break points battling past 16th-seeded Nick Kyrgios, 2-6, 7-5, 7-6 (7) in two hours, 26 minutes.
Martin Klizan was a 5-7, 6-0, 6-3 victor over Juan Monaco. The 14th-seeded Klizan takes on Estrella Burgos for a quarterfinal spot.
Spanish veteran Pablo Andujar defeated 11th-seeded Argentine Leonard Mayer, 2-6, 6-1, 6-2, and will play compatriot Feliciano Lopez next. No. 5 seed Lopez dug out a 6-2, 5-7, 7-6 (5) victory over Marsel Ilhan.