One week after completing his ninth title run at the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters, Rafael Nadal will vie for a ninth crown at another happy hunting ground.

The top seeded Spaniard will look to dethrone two-time defending champion Kei Nishikori on Sunday after downing Philipp Kohlschreiber 6-3, 6-3 in the semis of the Barcelona Open BancSabadell. Bidding for an unprecedented ninth victory on home soil, he is hoping to lift his first trophy in three years, adding to crowns in 2005-’09 and 2011-’13 at the Real Club Tenis Barcelona-1899.

“Tomorrow I will play against one of the world’s best players and it will be complicated,” said Nadal. “I have to play a great match to win the final.” 

Most Titles At A Single Tournament (Open Era)

Nadal had his entire shotmaking arsenal on display against Kohlschreiber, firing 18 winners and claiming 80 per cent of first serve points. He denied his lone break point faced, while capitalising on three of eight on the German’s serve.

Nadal broke for a 4-2 lead in the first set when a Kohlschreiber forehand clipped the tape and sailed long. The Spaniard continued to apply the pressure in the second, and after failing to convert on three break points in the fifth game, he took his fourth chance for 4-3 and another to seal the victory two games later. He struck a deep return at Kohlschreiber’s feet and a backhand winner to the open court to emerge victorious on his first match point after one hour and 32 minutes.

The World No. 5 advanced to his 101st tour-level final, where he will look to continue his winning ways against Nishikori. Nadal owns an 8-1 advantage in their FedEx ATP Head2Head rivalry, with their lone final encounter also coming on Spanish soil, in Madrid two years ago.

Should Nadal prevail on Sunday, he would earn a record-tying 49th career clay-court crown, pulling level with Guillermo Vilas.

Most Clay-Court Titles (Open Era)

Bjorn Fratangelo can’t quite put his finger on what he enjoys so much about the Savannah Challenger, the weeklong tournament hosted at The Landings Club on Skidaway Island, about 12 miles outside Savannah.

It might be the club’s 32 Har-Tru courts, a familiar surface for Fratangelo. Maybe, Fratangelo said, it’s the tournament’s friendly people and laid-back atmosphere. Or perhaps he likes coming back to a place where he’s done well; Fratangelo made the semi-finals in Savannah last year. He does know that it’s one of his favorite ATP Challengers.

“I just feel very at home here,” said Fratangelo, who’s playing in his fifth Savannah Challenger this week. “Everyone’s really friendly. The town is really cool. I like Savannah a lot.”

The Pittsburgh native has company in his admiration for the $50,000 event. Other players expressed similar satisfaction about their annual trip to the Georgia coast.

Denis Kudla has been impressed with the draw at the Savannah tournament this year. Kudla, No. 63 in the Emirates ATP Rankings, is the No. 1 seed but has tough competition throughout the bracket. Former World No. 38 Donald Young and former World No. 52 Brian Baker also made the trip to Savannah, as have a few up-and-coming Americans, including Frances Tiafoe, Jared Donaldson and Fratangelo.

“It’s probably one of the toughest $50,000 events you’re going to play… There’s so many guys who should be Top 100 or have been Top 100,” said Kudla, who’s making his fourth appearance in Savannah. “It’s a tough tournament that we love coming back to.”

The high-quality draw also helped tournament officials promote the event, said Chris Kader, Savannah Challenger tournament director. “I’ve been telling everybody, ‘This has got to be one of the greatest, strongest Challenger fields that I can remember seeing,’” he said.

Fan interest might be what Donald Young appreciates the most about the Savannah Challenger. Young, who’s returned to Savannah this year to gain some confidence on clay, has noticed area tennis fans especially welcome good tennis. “The fans come out, and they really treat it like a big tournament,” Young said.

He also appreciates the abundance of practice courts available for players. The Landings Club offers 20 courts on its main campus, where the ATP Challenger matches are played. But matches have been held on fewer than a handful of them, leaving the majority of courts available for practice time. “The guys like it,” Young said.

The private club and its members also relish when the ATP Challenger visits their courts. The tournament even helped the club land its its new director of court sports.

Last summer, Kader was the director of tennis at The Beach Club in Palm Beach, Florida. But the prestige of a $50,000 ATP Challenger helped draw him to The Landings Club, where he started last September.

“I looked at it and I saw opportunity, big time,” Kader said of the opening. “Knowing that there was an event like this in place, that’s pretty cool to be a part of this… It was definitely a motivation to get here.”

There is one downside to the tournament being held at the club, Kader said: Members can’t use the main campus courts while the tournament is being played. But, he said, they overlook this slight inconvenience and appreciate the professionals taking the courts.

Kader said, “It’s a pretty cool event to have in your own backyard.”

Kei Nishikori continued his assault on the Barcelona Open BancSabadell, extending his win streak to 14 consecutive matches with a 6-3, 6-2 victory over Benoit Paire in Saturday’s semi-finals.

Nishikori, who has now won 13 sets in a row in Barcelona, will vie for a three-peat at the ATP World Tour 500 event against either top seed Rafael Nadal or Germany’s Philipp Kohlschreiber. The World No. 6 exacted revenge on Paire following two defeats last year, in the first round of the US Open and semis on home soil in Tokyo. He would fire 15 winners, including one ace, and benefitted from 27 unforced errors by his French opponent.

“I played very aggressively, especially attacking his second serve,” Nishikori said. “I stepped in more today. I will try to watch a little bit of the other semi-final to prepare well for tomorrow.”

The semi-finals of the 63rd Trofeo Conde de Godo got underway with the threat of ominous rain clouds in the distance. Nishikori would break twice in the opening set, dropping just three points on his own serve. A rifled running backhand pass gave him the initial break in the second set for 2-0, but Paire responded in kind, breaking right back with a volley winner. The Frenchman would eventually concede the decisive break in the fourth game and despite hitting a sublime between-the-legs hot shot down match point, he would succumb after just 67 minutes.

Second seed Nishikori converted five of nine break points and saved two of three faced to reach his 18th tour-level final. He leads the tournament this week with 34 of 37 service games won. The 26 year old will look to clinch a second three-peat on the ATP World Tour in 2016, having also achieved the feat in Memphis in February.

Lucas Pouille will play for his first ATP World Tour title after defeating third seed Federico Delbonis 7-6(4), 6-3 at the BRD Nastase Tiriac Trophy on Saturday. The 22 year old saved all three break points faced and secured the win in 98 minutes.

“[Delbonis] is a good player and won Marrakech two weeks ago, but I was feeling confident,” Pouille said. “The first set was tough and so was the end of the match. In those moments you have some doubts and feel more pressure. I think today I was more solid in the important moments, I made no mistakes and I am happy to be qualified for my first ATP final.”

Since reaching the quarter-finals of an ATP Challenger Tour event in Guadalajara, Mexico six weeks ago, Pouille has been playing his best tennis, going 9-2 at ATP World Tour events in Miami, Monte-Carlo and Bucharest. In that span, he took out two players in the Top 10 of the Emirates ATP Rankings – David Ferrer in Miami and Richard Gasquet last week in Monte-Carlo. He advanced to his first tour-level final, becoming the first Frenchman to reach the Bucharest title match since Gilles Simon lifted the trophy in 2012.

On Sunday, Pouille will face Fernando Verdasco, who saw off defending champion Guillermo Garcia-Lopez 6-3, 3-6, 6-2. Verdasco won 19 of 24 points on Garcia-Lopez’s second serve and secured the win in just under two hours.

“I’m very happy, it’s always nice to be in the position to fight for another title,” Verdasco said. “Guillermo and I have know each other since we were kids. We’ve had tough matches and so it was today. I tried to play my game, to serve as well as possible, to be aggressive when needed and to defend well”

Former ATP pros, led by Andres Gomez, Luis Adrian Morejon, Raul Antonio Viver, Nicolas Lapentti and Giovanni Lapentti, have come together to support the victims of Saturday’s earthquake in their home country of Ecuador.

Through the Ecuadorian Federation of Tennis (FET), they seek to centralise efforts to collect clothing, canned food and money for the people affected by the tragedy.

“The FET invites all our tennis community to contribute with [donations]: food, mattresses, medicine, awnings, insect repellent, clothing, water and even toilet paper,” wrote Alberto March G. in a statement on the FET website. He added that the items “will be stockpiled in the FET in Lomas de Urdesa headquarters, and will be shipped to Pedernales in helicopters, under coordination with the Ministry of Environment”.

The 7.8-magnitude quake struck the province of Manabí, located 110 miles from Quito, leaving more than 600 dead, 12,000 injured and hundreds missing across the country.

“After this tragedy in my country, I feel even more proud to be Ecuadorian and see how the whole community has rallied to help all victims and families affected after the earthquake,” said Nicolas Lapentti. “I wanted to contribute and, through the local Tennis Federation and the tennis community, help the victims, leaving instructions for people to make donations in this place and trying to alleviate this difficult time.”

The former World No. 6 is also auctioning the shoes he wore during his last match at Roland Garros (in 2010), and will donate the money to earthquake relief efforts.

Individuals can make donations to the Ecuadorian Red Cross.