Rome, May 13:

Rafael Nadal battled past Nikolay Davydenko 7-6 (3), 6-7 (8), 6-4 in the Rome Masters semi-finals on Saturday and broke John McEnroe’s record for most victories on one surface.

McEnroe had a 75-match winning streak on indoor-carpet fromn September 1983 to April 1985. “It’s nice to have these records but the important thing for me is to be in the final right now,” Nadal said after his 76th successive win on clay.

“The guy seems like he’s unbeatable right now,” said McEnroe, who was at the Foro Italico for a seniors tournament. “Doesn’t he ever have a bad day or a headache once in a while or something? His intensity and quality level is just amazing.”

Nadal dropped his serve while serving for each of the first two sets and lost the second set — the first time he has lost a set in 14 matches on clay this season. But the Spaniard eventually wore out fourth-ranked Davydenko to close out the match in 3 hours, 38 minutes.

In the final, Nadal will meet sixth-ranked Fernando Gonzalez, who ended Filippo Volandri’s impressive run with a 6-1, 6-2 rout.

Nadal visited the hospital on Thursday to check a dizzy spell and an apparent stomach problem and he didn’t look fully fit during long stretches against Davydenko.

Normally considered the fastest player on tour, the second-ranked Spaniard arrived late to balls he usually crushes for winners and his baseline shots did not penetrate as far as normal in his opponent’s court.

German Open

BERLIN: Former junior Wimbledon finalist Ana Ivanovic lifted the German Open title on Sunday with a 3-6, 6-4, 7-6 (7/4) tie-break win over Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova in Berlin.

The 19-year-old Serbian, ranked 16 in the world, picked up the $181,980 winners’ cheque after seeing off her 21-year-old Russian opponent despite enduring a torrid opening set and suffering an ankle injury in the second.

In a fascinating third set, Ivanovic broke her opponent’s serve in the eighth game to take a 5-3 lead before the Russian, who won the 2004 US Open, took the next two games to level the scores at 5-5 as the game moved into a tie-break. The Serb leapt into a 5-1 lead and used her hard-hitting service game to win her third WTA tournament of her career.

But Kuznetsova put up a good fight and had produced some unstoppable returns in the first set which Ivanovic looked unable to match.

Earlier, world number one Justine Henin was disappointed to bow out of Berlin’s WTA tournament after losing her semi-final to Kuznetsova, but pleased with her preparation to defend her French Open title. — AFP