By Chris Oddo | Friday, May 15, 2015
A cool, calm and collected Stan Wawrinka raced past Rafael Nadal to set up an all-Swiss semifinal in Rome.
Photo Source: Ian Walton/Getty
Rafael Nadal will head to Roland Garros with another stinging loss to contend with. The Spaniard failed in his bid for an eighth Rome title on Friday as he was knocked out in straight-sets by hard-punching Stan Wawrinka in the Internazionali BNL D'Italia quarterfinals, 7-6(7), 6-2.
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The victory was Wawrinka’s second consecutive victory against Nadal in the pair’s first meeting since the 2014 Australian Open final.
Wawrinka, who had lost his first 12 career meetings with Nadal, came out with an aggressive game plan and controlled the baseline and the net for much of the match.
Nadal appeared to be taking charge early, but Wawrinka responded to each of his service breaks with a break of his own in set one (in the opening two games and games seven and eight). As a first-set tiebreaker got underway, Nadal quickly raced ahead and found himself holding four set points at 6-2.
But Wawrinka would turn the match on its ear in rapid fashion, reeling off five consecutive points with bristling play that saw him decisively finish off each point at the net. Nadal tattooed a forehand winner to save a set point of his own and level at 7-all, but Wawrinka closed the set winning two straight and took the momentum into the changeover.
Nadal didn’t really play poorly in this match, but he gave up a lot of court to Wawrinka, and didn’t put himself in position to dictate with the forehand, particularly on the big points.
He found himself quickly in trouble in the third game of set two when twice his errors led to break points for Wawrinka. The Swiss decisively laced a forehand down-the-line return winner to claim the break and didn’t look back from there.
When Nadal netted a forehand two games later, Wawrinka had a double-break lead, and though Nadal showed very positive body language down the stretch, Wawrinka matched him in every way, saving five break points with more clutch play over his last two service games, and clinching the victory with a forehand volley winner.
In total, Wawrinka won 18 of 28 points, many of them crucial, at the net.
He finished with 25 winners against 32 unforced errors, while Nadal finished with 18 winners against 23 unforced.
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Nadal will head to Roland Garros with a record of 17-5 on clay for 2015. It is the most losses he’s suffered on the surface since his rookie season of 2003, when he went 11-6.
The loss also assures that Nadal will enter the French Open with a ranking (and thus seed, barring withdrawals) of no higher than No. 7.
Wawrinka had not won back-to-back matches since February in Rotterdam heading into this week.
Nadal had played the Rome final in nine of his previous ten appearances with the only exception being 2008 when he lost to Juan Carlos Ferrero in the third round.