Nadal will square off against Fognini for the third time this season at an ATP World Tour 500 event, with the Italian claiming a pair of upsets in Rio de Janeiro and Barcelona.
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Nadal, a 14-times grand slam champion, has endured a hard year, surrendering his French Open title, suffering a shock defeat by journeyman Dustin Brown at Wimbledon and dropping to number 10 in the rankings.
In the crucial match, Nadal served a double-fault at match point in the seventh game before breaking serve in the next to win. “I had many ups and downs”.
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This was a very important win for me, I hope to see you soon again and now I don’t know what to do but thank you very much everybody”,
Nadal joked. Nadal, who has only dropped one set this tournament-all the way back in the first round against Fernando Verdasco-is going into the finals off a 6-1, 6-2 drubbing of fourth-seeded Italian Andreas Seppi.
It is the 67th singles title of the 29-year-old’s career and his third in Hamburg, where he last won in 2008.
“From the beginning I played great, since the first game that I hit a few winners”, Nadal added. Fognini then saved three break points before Nadal clinched the set with a forehand return.
He capitalised on his second match point to prevail 6-1, 6-2 in 80 minutes, firing 21 winners. I’m very happy for the victory.
Fognini, who falls to 3-7 in career finals, broke Nadal early but it to prove the first of four breaks of service until the Spaniard held for 3-2.
“I think I had a great attitude the whole match, very positive, fighting for every ball”.
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Nadal defeated his opponent 7-5, 7-5.
