Rafael Nadal, 31, has made it through a difficult test at Shanghai Rolex Masters, by far the biggest challenge of the current week as he edged Grigor Dimitrov at the end of a high-quality tennis display from both sides. The Bulgarian saw his bid terminated for the second week in a row by Nadal who is now just two steps away from winning another Masters 1000 title, his third in 2017 and the 31st of his career. Marin Cilic will step on the other side of the court as the 2017 Wimbledon runner-up is putting together a solid week of tennis in Shanghai.
Getting past Dimitrov means that Nadal has now put 15 wins in a row under his belt. This is a surreal winning streak, considering the fact that prior to the 2017 US Open his hard court numbers were pretty low with early exits both in Montreal and Cincinnati.
Grigor Dimitrov lost his third match against Nadal in 2017
The Bulgarian tennis star and the current world No. 8 might consider himself to be completely out of luck. For the second week in a row he had to share the draw with Rafael Nadal and despite putting in some great tennis, all of his efforts weren't enough to shut the Spaniard down. Last week, he lost in straight sets in the semis in Beijing. The scenario repeated itself earlier today with Dimitrov again winning the second set.
As it turned out, it was just a minor bump for the first seed who went on to win the decisive act.
Winning the opening set by 6-4 put Nadal in front but Dimitrov decided to put up a decent fight. The second set saw both players acting strongly on their own serves which resulted in zero breaks of serve. The set went into a tie-break where a slightly hesitant Nadal allowed Dimitrov to put his feet into the tie.
The third act saw Dimitrov with the first chance to break in the fifth game. Nadal escaped from that trap and bounced back to break his opponent in the very next game, It was all that he needed to secure another solid win.
Marin Cilic ends Ramos-Vinolas bid
2017 Wimbledon runner-up and 2014 US Open champion, Marin Cilic is trying to finish the year on a strong note.
After a sloppy start last week in Tokyo, he seems eager to go all the way in Shanghai. Currently ranked fifth in the world, the 29-year-old will move into the top four for the first time next Monday. Seeded fourth in Shanghai he didn't drop a set en route to the semis. He will take on Rafael Nadal, trying to put an end to the Spaniard's winning streak while securing a spot in another Masters 1000 final. Nadal leads Cilic by 4-1 in head to head stats and the Croatian's sole success occurred eight years ago in Beijing in what was their first ATP level matchup.
