Saturday 11 May 2013

ATP Madrid Final Prediction: Rafael Nadal v Stanislas Wawrinka

Stanislas Wawrinka
The mens tournament in Madrid has been a bit of a strange one; Novak Djokovic fell to Grigor Dimitrov in a epic second round match, Roger Federer limped out to Kei Nishikori in round three and then Andy Murray lost to Tomas Berdych in the quarter-finals; granted that was not much of a surprise, but a result that left the semi-finals without any members of the current top four.  

Step forward Rafael Nadal, who has avoided all the upsets, albeit coming close to falling in the quarter-finals to David Ferrer, and continued his record of making the final at all tournaments he has played in 2013. Nadal defeated Pablo Andujar today, 6-0 6-4 and takes on Stanislas Wawrinka in the final.  Wawrinka is on a cracking run of form and today took out Tomas Berdych, who rather collapsed from 4-2 and break points up in the deciding set.  Wawrinka ran out a 6-3 4-6 6-4 winner and deserves this win, which I believe will see him crack the top ten.

The head-to-head is not a pretty sight for Wawrinka, who has lost all eight matches to Nadal.  Their last match came on the clay of Monte-Carlo last year, which Nadal won 7-5 6-4.  I am expecting a similar result tomorrow as I think Wawrinka is a bit of a spent force having played a lot of tennis these last two weeks, including three consecutive three-setters to make the finals.  Still, it is a great achievement and I anticipate an entertaining final whatever the result...

Prediction - Rafael Nadal to beat Stanislas Wawrinka in 2 tight sets

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