Fognini scored no fewer than three wins over Nadal past year, adding a three-set victory in the Rio semis and a comeback from two sets down in the third round of the US Open to win in five.
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Nadal holds a dominant record against the Japanese player, having won eight of their nine matches, but Nishikori did beat him in straight sets at last year’s Canadian Masters.
He served for the match at 5-4, but Nadal pressed hard and got the error he sought on break point, 5-5.
Nadal spent 91 minutes in handing Kohlschreiber a fifth loss on clay in their series.
“I will have to play my best”, he said. “In the second set I missed several chances and at the end it was very close, but I stayed mentally strong”.
On Friday, the top seed and World No.5 avenged his round-of-16 loss previous year to Italy’s Fabio Fognini.
“He’s got a great backhand and serve, but he was not making many first serves today”. “I will try to watch a little bit of the other semi-final to prepare well for tomorrow”.In the second set, with almost an hour on the clock, the German did threaten in the fourth game, but Nadal saved a break point and immediately turned the tables on Kohlschreiber.
Nishikori reached the match’s first break points in the third game, but Nadal fended them off and broke in the next game to go up 3-1.
Nadal answered with a hard-fought game – which included two superb rallies won by the home favorite at the net – to recover the break. The ball fell in, and Nishikori broke Nadal with an unreachable drop shot for 4-3.
Spain’s Rafael Nadal launches a ball to returning it to Japan’s Kei Nishikori during the Barcelona Open tennis tournament final in Barcelona, Spain, Sunday, April 24, 2016.
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Top-seeded Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland beat Andrea Petkovic of Germany 1-6, 6-1, 6-2. “I had to be aggressive with his second serve, so I tried to step in more and it worked well”.
