JOIN USNadal wins second title on return
A dominant Rafael Nadal dismantled fellow Spaniard David Ferrer 6-0, 6-2 on Saturday to win his second Mexican Open title and continue his successful comeback from a long injury lay-off.
Nadal, ranked fifth in the world, needed just over an hour to dispatch top seed Ferrer and was delighted with his form.
“For me, I played almost perfectly,” said Nadal following the match. “My knee responded well all week,’” he added.
Nadal also confirmed he would play in next week's Indian Wells hard-court tournament, despite speculation he might skip the event to spare his knee.
“My heart tells me I should continue competing, that I need to move on to the next tournament,” the 11-times Grand Slam champion added.
The former world number one charged out of the blocks and won the first eight games against three-times defending champion Ferrer, who saw his 19-match winning streak at the clay-court event come to an end.
"Rafa was just better than me today (Saturday)," said Ferrer.
World No 4 Ferrer waited 44 minutes to win his first game of the final, the crowd erupting in applause as he put away a service winner to trail 2-1 in the second set.
With Ferrer serving down 3-1, an extended rally in which both players scrambled back and forth from the net ended with a top-spin lob winner by Nadal, bringing the crowd to its feet and the score to 30-30.
Second seed Nadal, the 2005 Mexican Open champion, won the next two points to go up two breaks in the set and virtually put the match away. He pocketed $291,800 in prize money for the win.
Isner, Haas crash out
Top seeds John Isner and Tommy Haas were dumped out of the Delray Beach International semifinals by two players ranked outside the world's top 100, as Edouard Roger-Vasselin and Ernests Gulbis advanced to Sunday's final.
Gulbis, ranked 109th in the world, beat second seed Haas 6-3, 4-6, 7-6 (7-2) in two hours and 14 minutes on Saturday before Frenchman Roger-Vasselin, ranked 105th, knocked off big-serving American Isner 6-4, 4-6, 6-4.