Rafael Nadal wins Barcelona Open

Rafael Nadal maintained his ominous claycourt form by seizing back the Barcelona Open title from Kei Nishikori with a 6-4 7-5 victory, matching Guillermo Vilas’s record title haul on the surface. A week after reclaiming the Monte Carlo crown, the 29-year-old Spaniard returned to another of his favourite hunting grounds to end Nishikori’s two-year hold on the trophy and take his tally in the Catalan capital to nine.
“It’s a very special week playing in my homeland,” said Nadal. “This is a very important and historic tournament on the calendar.”
Playing with the kind of authority that once made him almost unplayable on European clay, Nadal looked poised for a comfortable victory until Nishikori broke back in the second set to make Nadal dig deep.
Nadal moves into second place in the 2016 point race to the World Tour Finals in London. He earned his first back-to-back titles in successive weeks since Toronto and Cincinnati in August 2013.