Tennis: Barcelona Open: Rafael Nadal beats Dominic Thiem to win 10th title



Rafael Nadal

Rafael Nadal swept aside Dominic Thiem of Austria 6-4 6-1 to claim his 10th Barcelona Open title.

The Spaniard - who became the first man in the Open era to win the same event 10 times at last week's Monte Carlo Masters - did not drop a set this week.

Nadal, 30, has now won 10 consecutive matches and is aiming for his 10th French Open title next month.



Meanwhile, Britain's Aljaz Bedene had his 16-match winning run ended by Lucas Pouille in the Hungarian Open final.

The former world number one played all his matches on the renamed Rafa Nadal court at the Real Tennis Club, and needed just 90 minutes to finish off Thiem.

World number nine Thiem beat world number one Andy Murray in the semi-finals and claimed the first break point of the contest.

However, Nadal broke serve in the 10th game and claimed the first set, before breaking twice in a row in the second to clinch the title on his beloved clay surface.



He was only broken twice in his 47 service games throughout the week.

"It was a close first set and a good quality of tennis - anything could have happened," said Nadal.

"But then I started playing at a very high level and Dominic probably started making a few more mistakes."


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