King of Clay advances at Wimbledon
Thursday, 6 July 2006 16:35French Open champion Rafael Nadal marched into his first Wimbledon semi-final with a straight-sets victory over Finland's Jarkko Nieminen.
Nadal won 6-3 6-4 6-4 on Court One and will now take on Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis on Friday for the right to face either defending champion Roger Federer or Sweden's Jonas Bjorkman in Sunday's final.
Prevented from playing yesterday by bad weather and the epic match between Bjorkman and Radek Stepanek, the left-handed pair finally began play shortly after 1pm.
And it was Nadal who was first to find the form which had seen him drop just two sets on his way to the last eight, breaking Nieminen in the fourth game with a superb forehand winner.
Nieminen bravely saved more break points to remain in touching distance at 4-2, but was unable to pressure the Nadal serve and the second seed sealed it 6-3.
Nieminen had let slip a two-set lead in the previous round before eventually beating Dmitry Tursunov 9-7 in the fifth set, so was clearly ready for a lengthy battle.
The first two games of the second set took a strength-sapping 18 minutes as both players battled to save a break point, and the Finn found himself 15-40 down in the fifth game as well.
It took some superb serve-volleying to get him out of trouble, the 24-year-old showing a deft touch at the net with two awkward backhand volleys.
But his serve let him down at the most inopportune moment, his first two double faults of the match gifting Nadal a break of serve in the ninth game.
The 20-year-old took full advantage and served out to take the set 6-4 and a two sets to nil lead.
Nieminen had come back from two sets down just once in his career and never truly looked capable of improving on that record.
The first six games of the third set went with serve until Nadal made the crucial breakthrough, a low bounce causing Nieminen to net a simple forehand and put Nadal 4-3 ahead.
There was no way back now for the number 22 seed and Nadal sealed another impressive victory to keep hopes of the dream final against Federer alive.
