World number five Rafael Nadal will gun for his 24th ATP World Tour Masters 1000 title on Sunday and he will have to beat Roger Federer for it.
The 26-year old Spaniard has reached his eighth consecutive final this season. He’s been making remarkable progress this season and in fact will be overtaking Novak Djokovic for the year-end ATP World Tour rankings race by Monday.
“Eight finals in a row is wonderful,” said Nadal. “Four to five months ago it was impossible to think about this. I hope to play very well. Any result will be fantastic.”
Nadal has a 40-2 record at Rome Masters. He’s currently on a 14-match winning streak on clay, having won titles in Barcelona and Madrid. He’s the defending champion at this tournament.
With the loss of David Ferrer in the quarterfinals, Nadal has a chance to improve his ranking to number four if he successfully defends the Rome Masters title. Should he fail to do so, he can still have that number four seeding should Andy Murray decide to withdraw from the Roland Garros tournament. Murray pulled out of the Rome tournament due to back injury and may decide whether to push through with the French Open or not.
