Rafael Nadal of Spain reacts on winning his semi-final match against Nikolay Davydenko of Russia at the Rome Masters yesterday. Nadal won 7-6, 6-7, 6-4. - ReutersROME (Reuters):
RAFAEL NADAL survived one of the toughest battles in his long claycourt winning streak when he edged out Nikolay Davydenko 7-6, 6-7, 6-4 to reach the final of the Rome Masters yesterday.
The world number two battled for more than 3-1/2 hours to chalk up his 76th successive victory on clay and will be aiming to capture his 13th consecutive title on the surface when he faces Fernando Gonzalez today.
Should he defeat the Chilean, Nadal will equal Thomas Muster's professional era record of a hat-trick of Rome victories.
"It was one of the most difficult matches I've ever played on clay. I really risked losing it," the Spaniard said courtside.
Sixth seed Gonzalez ended the hopes of the home crowd by sweeping aside wildcard Filippo Volandri 6-1, 6-2.
Nadal was not expected to be stretched by Davydenko, who was knocked out by a qualifier in the first round of the claycourt event in Estoril last week.
The duel between them, however, was a hard-fought affair right from the start, with both players combining great shot-making with basic errors.
familiar fashion
Nadal began in familiar fashion, drilling a forehand down the line at the end of a long rally to take the first point on his way to breaking Davydenko in the opening game.
The 20-year-old Spaniard failed to keep up the momentum, making a double-fault and then hoisting a backhand wide to allow the Russian to break straight back.
Davydenko recovered from a break down three times in the first set. He even held a set point as Nadal served to level at 6-6, but netted a simple pass after chasing down a poor drop shot by his opponent.
Four successive forehand errors at the start of the tiebreak gave Nadal the lead he needed to close out the set in 75 minutes - which was longer than the entire semi-final between Gonzalez and Volandri.
The players exchanged breaks again at the start of the second set, which also went to a tiebreak after both players dropped serve in set-winning positions.
This time, Davydenko was more adventurous and aimed for the lines to create a series of set points. Nadal chose to stay back and fended off five of them, but the match went into a deciding set when he drifted a forehand over the baseline.
Nadal got the decisive break in the ninth game of the decider, firing a forehand winner past Davydenko and then taking advantage of a pair of unforced errors to serve out for the match.
