By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Friday November 6, 2020
Rafael Nadal booked his spot in the semis at Paris by battling back from a set down to take out Pablo Carreno Busta.
Photo Source: Rolex
Rafael Nadal moved a step closer to his first title at the Rolex Paris Masters on Friday by battling back from a set down to topple Pablo Carreno Busta, 4-6 7-5, 6-1.
The top-seeded Spaniard, who reached the final at Bercy in 2007 but has not returned since, played a solid match to improve to 7-0 lifetime against his compatriot—but he dropped the first set and was made to work extremely hard to get out of a tight second set that featured some assertive tennis from the 29-year-old World No. 15.
After the contest, Nadal chalked his early match struggles up to his inability to make significant inroads with his return game. He won only five return points in the first set but steadily improved from there.
“I think he started playing well,” Nadal said. “The problem was he was winning his serves too comfortable, no? I was not able to return enough well, to create problems on him.”
Nadal did eventually break through late in the second set as he hammered a forehand passing shot to convert set point and force a decider.
He rolled through the third set, dropping just four points on serve and breaking twice on four opportunities to wrap up the win in two hours and 13 minutes.
Nadal will face Germany’s Alexander Zverev in the semifinals.
The 20-time Grand Slam and 35-time Masters 1000 champion believes he’ll have to return a lot better on Saturday if he is to qualify for the final.
“Talking about my side, that's the thing that really matters to me, I need to return better," he said. "My serve is working well, I think, so the rest of the game more or less I am playing better and better. I need to return better if I want to have chances to keep going.”
Zverev got past Stan Wawrinka in Friday’s final quarterfinal, 6-3, 7-6(1).
The 23-year-old German improves to 4-0 lifetime against Wawrinka.
Wawrinka, who upset Andrey Rublev on Thursday in Paris, had some chances to force a decider, but he didn’t play well when he needed to consolidate breaks in the second set. He didn’t save any of the four break points he faced on Friday.
“The two times I got broken, I rushed a bit, I make mistakes too quickly. In the second, I served for the set, I led 30-0, again a little the same.”