Rafa whips Wawrinka in Madrid

Having broken all the clay court records there were to break, Rafael Nadal now has only his own personal ones to better. This year, in Madrid, he recorded another personal clay court achievement, claiming both Barcelona and Madrid in the same season for the first time.

All that can stop Rafael Nadal and his history-making is himself by way of an injury or his opponents outplaying him, and the former has more chance than the latter, though both factors have gotten in his way in the last year. Injury kept him off the tour for seven months and Novak Djokovic beat him in his much-favored Monte Carlo a couple of weeks ago.

But in Madrid neither injury or an opponent of the the Nadal-defeating-ability of Djokovic reared their troublesome heads, well not for too long anyway. Ferrer was two points away from defeating Nadal in their quarter-final but one moment of poor decision making when he failed to hit the ball into the open court and hit it to Nadal’s forehand instead put paid to his chances.

Once that dangerous obstacle had been overcome, Nadal was not bothered again. His surprise semi-final opponent Andujar, a wild card compatriot ranked outside the top 100, only managed to put up any resistance in the second set.

In the final, Wawrinka was unable to do much more, going down 2-6, 4-6. A combination of Nadal intent on making his own history and Wawrinka feeling the tiredness of a ten match win streak over two weeks of great form meant the final was another Nadal procession on his way to further underlining his status as the Greatest player of all time in an ever deeper shade of red.