Nadal flies into Italian Open final

Rafael Nadal progresses into his first clay-court final of 2019

Rafael Nadal looked more like his old, dominant self as he beat Stefanos Tsitsipas 6-3 6-4 to reach the Italian Open final.

It was a measure of revenge for Nadal after losing to Tsitsipas in three sets at this stage in Madrid last week.

This victory should also restore Nadal’s confidence as he seeks a record-extending 12th title at the French Open starting next weekend.

“The main thing is I am playing better. If I play better, I know I’m going to have chances to be in finals and to win semi-final matches,” Nadal said.

“If you are not playing well, [beating] the best players of the world is much more difficult. I have margin to keep improving. But, I am doing the right steps to be there.”

Aiming for a ninth trophy in Rome, Nadal’s opponent in Sunday’s final will be Novak Djokovic or Diego Schwartzman.

Nadal ripping into a forehand during the semi-final victory

Nadal is in the middle of his longest title drought to begin a season since he came onto the scene in 2004. His last trophy came last August in Toronto.

The crowd attempted to encourage Tsitsipas with chants of “Tsi-Tsi-Tsi, Pas-Pas-Pas” but the 20-year-old Greek player couldn’t keep up with Nadal on the long rallies even though he didn’t play a day earlier after Roger Federer withdrew injured from their quarterfinal.

Conditions were much slower than on the high-altitude court in Madrid, which favored Nadal and made it tougher for Tsitsipas to execute his attacking game.

“The shots that I played today, I played similar shots last week,” Tsitsipas said.

“Today those shots felt really slow and he had plenty of time to pass me when I was approaching to the net. The court speed was the difference.”

Last week, Tsitsipas became the youngest player to defeat Nadal on clay however this time around, the world No 2 controlled proceedings from the word go and won in one hour and 43 minutes.

Nadal broke his opponent in the 20-year-old’s first service game and sealed the opening set in a cool 49 minutes.

He punished with his intensity of ground-strokes, particularly off the forehand, and broke for a 2-1 advantage in the second.

From that point on, the Spaniard never looked back and if he prevails in the final will standalone with 34 Masters 1000 crowns.

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