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  • Barcelona Semifinal: Rafael Nadal vs. Denis Gremelmayr

    5/3/08 12:23 AM | Ricky Dimon
    - It’s David vs. Goliath in the semifinals of the Open Sabadell Atlantico in Barcelona on Saturday. Well, to be exact it’s Denis Gremelmayr vs. Rafael Nadal. Will Gremelayr’s run continue with an upset for the ages?

    Everyone expected Rafael Nadal to be in the Barcelona semifinals, but nobody could have expected his opponent to be Denis Gremelmayr. Saturday’s surprising showdown will be the first-ever head-to-head meeting between Nadal and Gremelmayr.

    The No. 2 player in the world, of course, will be heavily favored. Nadal dominated his way to the Masters Series shield in Monte-Carlo last week and he has plowed through his first three opponents in Barcelona with relative ease. Nadal dispatched Potito Starace 6-4, 6-2 in the first round, followed that up on Thursday with a 6-4, 6-3 victory over 16th-seeded Feliciano Lopez, and blew past Juan Ignacio Chela 6-4, 6-2 in the quarterfinals.

    Nadal could go all the way to the final without having to beat anyone seeded higher than No. 16. A relatively obscure player until just recently, Gremelmayr is in the midst of a breakout hot streak on clay. The German reached a career-high ranking of No. 84 in the world last week by reaching the semifinals in Estoril. He took out Jarkko Nieminen, Teimuraz Gabashvili, and Jiri Vanek before falling to Roger Federer in a tough three-setter. So far this week he has kept up the momentum. The unseeded Gremelmayr started off his Barcelona campaign by easing past Ruben Ramirez Hidalgo and he trumped that effort with impressive blowout wins over James Blake and Dmitry Tursunov. In the quarterfinals he outlasted 10th-seeded and clay-court master Nicolas Almagro 9-7 in the third-set tiebreaker.

    Gremelmayr is playing the best tennis of his life right now, so do not discount him just because you might not have even heard of the guy. If he keeps this level up he can give Nadal some trouble…at least for a while. Do not be surprised if this mach ends up progressing almost the same way the Nadal-Chela clash did. Gremelmayr could come out hot and stay with Nadal early, but eventually the best clay-court player will wear him down in straight sets.

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Open Sabadell Atlántico 2008  Open Sabadell Atlántico 2008