OK. It wasn’t really a domination but a survival. But Nadal again came back from two breaks down (1-5) in the first set to win the Hamburg Masters in three sets 7-5, 6-7, 6-3 against a Roger Federer who showed why he has pretty much no chance of winning the Roland Garros this year. Federer failed to put Nadal away with 2 breaks up and a set point at hand and that cost him the match.
I was so impressed with Djokovic when he closed out Nadal in that second set 6-2, but Federer has now allowed Nadal to take sets off of him when he was up 4-0 and 5-1. That pretty much tells you that Federer is mentally not ready to beat Nadal, and for him to win the Roland Garros, Nadal will have to beat himself.
You can read the story of the match here. Nadal may have used some gamesmanship to disrupt Federer’s rhythm in that 1st set. Having said that, Federer is not a touch better this year. He is godawful and that is why he has only won in Estoril. Novak still remains the main threat to Rafa on clay, but still Nadal should win the French with no major problems given that matches are best of 5. So off we are to Wimbledon!