in Tennis Articles

Barcelona, Spain- -- No. 2 Rafael Nadal claimed his third consecutive title at the Open Seat 2007 on Sunday April 29th, becoming the second player (Mats Wilander 1982-84) in the history of the tournament to accomplish the hat trick.

In a much-anticipated final showdown that extended his winning streak to 72 matches on clay, Nadal put to rest any question of relinquishing his dominance on clay any time soon.

It was clear early on that the match would be a tough one. No. 28 Guillermo Canas brought the fight to Nadal right off the bat. In the first game, Nadal was forced on the defensive and had to fight off two break points before winning the game. Undaunted, Nadal went to work. His lethal forehand had the 29-year-old Argentine on the defensive and, throughout the match, Canas was running balls down in all corners of the court.

While Canas’s game has met with a lot of success, patiently grinding out victories against opponents with his defensive style, against Nadal it proved to be not enough. Nadal would not be denied. Unstoppable and single-minded in his determination, Nadal went on to claim the historic victory in straight sets 6-3, 6-4.

The victory in Barcelona marks Nadal’s 12th consecutive clay court title and 20th career ATP title. Nadal’s overall 15-0 clay record ties him with Gustavo Kuerten in fourth place for the most career clay court titles.

While Nadal will next put his clay-match winning streak on the line at the ATP Masters Series in Rome on May 7th, 2007, when he sets to defend yet another clay court title, there is a lot tennis betting action to look forward to this week in tennis.

With the clay court season now in full swing, the next tournament on the ATP and WTA tour schedule is the Estoril Open in Portugal. Attracting top players like No. 4 Nikolay Davydenko, No. 5 Tommy Robredo and No. 6 Novak Djokovic from the ATP and No. 24 Marion Bartoli, No. 26 Francesca Schiavone and No. 30 Lucie Safarova from the WTA, the Estoril Open that starts on April 29th promises to offer a lot of exciting court action.

In addition to the Estoril Open, the BMW Open in Munich that starts on April 30th will play host to players like No. 11 Tommy Haas, No. 12 Tomas Berdych and No. 17 Mikhail Youzhny.

Therefore, with so much tennis betting action set to start this week, the sports betting enthusiast has a lot to choose from before all the players head to Rome for the Masters Series next week.

Get your BetUS.com Sportsbook.

Federer might be winning everything these days, but with online sports betting in the tennis lines, odds and props to earn cold, hard cash!

Nila Amerova is a freelance sports writer and regular contributor to the BetUS.com Locker Room.