Nadal v Starace

Match Date: 11th August 2008

Beijing Olympics 1st Round

Nadal is favourite for gold here, he has had a fantastic season winning the French Open and Wimbledon, many believe he is one of the greatest clay court players of all time, it is difficult to see Starace getting in his way of progressing through the first round at Beijing. Starace has lost nine of his last ten matches on clay and has a poor record against Nadal.

If Nadal does win here he will go on to play the winner of the Lleyton Hewitt v Jonas Björkman match and that could well be a totally different story.

Head to Head Record

Year	Tournament	Round	Surface	Winner	Score
2002	Spain 1	32	Clay	P.STARACE	3-6 1-6
2005	Buenos Aires	16	Clay	R.NADAL	6-1 6-3
2007	Barcelona	QF	Clay	R.NADAL	6-2 7-5
2008	Barcelona	32	Clay	R.NADAL	6-4 6-2
2008	Hamburg	32	Clay	R.NADAL	6-4 7-6(6)
2008	Olympic Tennis Event - Beijing	64	Hard	R.NADAL	6-2 3-6 6-2
Rafael NADAL (ESP) Leads Potito STARACE (ITA) : 5 to 0

Review

Nadal received a stern test from Potito Starace but eventually won through 6-2 3-6 6-3 to progress to Round Two of the men's Olympic Tennis Event.