Rafa Nadal continued to look more like his old self as he crushed Tomas Berdych 7-6, 6-1 to reach the Madrid Masters final. The defending champion and home favourite, bidding for a third consecutive Madrid title but still searching his for his best form, will face either Andy Murray or Kei Nishikori in the final.
Chasing a fifth title overall at the claycourt event in the Spanish capital, Nadal, seeded third, edged a tight first set before turning the screw in the second to exact revenge for a straight-sets defeat to the Czech sixth seed in this year’s Australian Open quarter-finals.