By Leobert Julian A. de la Peña
Rafael Nadal is back to his old winning ways when he captured his 12th overall Barcelona Open championship after defeating rising star Stefanos Tsitsipas, 6-4, 6-,7, 7-5.
It was an astonishing comeback for the Spanish legend after skipping most of the ATP tournaments due to self-conditioning and COVID-19 restrictions.
Nadal also had his revenge against Tsitsipas after winning their previous meeting in the Australian Open quarterfinals.
As the match went on, Nadal continued to gain momentum and fired heavy baseline shots pushing Tsitsipas to exhaustion.
The young Greek tennis superstar tried to counter and play the net every time Nadal forced the issue to the baseline.
However, Tsitsipas was unsuccessful in countering Nadal’s rally game and just watched the king of clay dominate in every facet of the game.
Nadal’s consistent service game was also crucial after closing the match in a nearly perfect held series of first serves.
The victory will give Nadal the world no. 2 spot and will overtake another young tennis star in Daniil Medvedev.
