The King of Clay Rafael Nadal plays fellow Spaniard Pablo Carreno Busta in the semi-finals of the 2021 Barcelona Open on Saturday, April 24. Get the live streaming options of this Rafael Nadal v Pablo Carreno Busta match along with its preview, head to head, and tips here.
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Rafael Nadal v Pablo Carreno Busta Head to Head
This will be the eighth meeting between both players. Nadal has won all seven encounters and is yet to drop a set on clay against his compatriot.
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Nadal Getting Into His Groove
It has been a difficult start to 2021 for Rafa Nadal. While a good portion of the season thus far has seen Nadal troubled with his back, pulling out of the ATP Cup, looking out of sorts in his quarter-final loss to Stefanos Tsitsipas at the Aussie Open as well as pulling out of Rotterdam, Acapulco and Miami, one thought that when it was time for the red dirt, he would be as unstoppable as can be.
Twenty- time major winner Nadal is in search for another French Open, i.e. his 14th which will put him ahead of Roger Federer’s total slam count of twenty titles.
In search of his 12th Monte Carlo tile, Nadal looked nothing less than ominous at the start of last week in Monte Carlo, dismantling Federico Delbonis and Grigor Dimitrov dropping five games in total. While both looked a little out of sorts, Nadal did not really let anyone settle into a groove of any sort either and was in cruise control from the get-go.
Into the quarter-finals, and with Novak Djokovic eliminated it seemed like it would take a superhuman effort to stop Nadal.
However, he ran into one of the players of the year thus far in Andrey Rublev in the quarter-finals and that turned out to be one of the biggest wins of the young Russian’s career surprisingly defeating Nadal in a three-set tussle breaking the Spaniard six times during the match.
After an opening round bye here in Barcelona where he is again going for a record number of titles (aiming to better his own record of 11 titles here), Nadal was up against little known Belarusian Ilya Ivashka and again struggled to get into any rhythm losing the first set 6-3.
Although he played way below his best, the Spaniard was able to use all his experience and navigate his way to a three set win, fully mindful that he will need to improve his level considerably as the clay season progresses.
Running into Kei Nishikori in the next round, an old and familiar opponent, he again got into an atypical situation where they were tied at one set all before he used his experience to close out in a decider. In the quarterfinals against Cameron Norrie, the Spaniard looked more like himself with a straight sets win and it seems like the more time he spends on court, the more dangerous he will be during this clay swing.
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Carreno Busta Continues Strong Run
Spain’s Pablo Carreno Busta has been in good form in recent times, most recently a solid 2020 season where he had a 20-12 record, which included a run to the semifinal of the U.S. Open for the second time in his career.
After a decent ATP Cup, where he had a good 2-1 record for Spain, it was an unfortunate end to his Australian Open, pulling out in his third round encounter against Grigor Dimitrov with injury and missing most of the rest of the hard court season.
A return in Dubai saw him eliminated early against the in-form Marton Fucosvics, but he has done well since the start of the clay season last week. Being top-seeded at the Andalucia Open earlier this month, he prevailed with a title run. Moving on to Monte Carlo, he was hoping for a better run but just like Schwartzman was also eliminated by Casper Ruud.
Carreno Busta has looked in good touch this week with striking straight set wins, but was yet to play anyone of note on clay and knew that he would have his work cut out against an opponent like Schwartzman here on the Barcelona dirt.
In a topsy turvy match, Carreno Busta won the first set before the Argentine equalized and ran away with a 4-1 lead in the decider. But a mixture of the Spaniard’s grit and Schwartzman just not being able to win the big points, saw Carreno Busta clinch it 7-5 in the decider.
Nadal v Carreno Busta Prediction and Tip
Although Nadal looked iffy last week and in his opener here, he is getting into a groove now and has had had the better of this match-up throughout their careers and can be expected to clinch this one, on clay again.
Expect a straight sets win for Nadal as he returns to where he belongs, i.e. another Barcelona ATP 500 final.
Tip: Nadal to win in straight sets: 5/6 (bet365)
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The 2021 Barcelona Open will be played from April 19 to 25. You can watch & bet on these matches here. Get your latest premium tennis predictions here.
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