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Rafa Nadal's road in New York begins to take a cruising pace not for less obvious family. The number two of the ranking is heading towards Sunday's final, where Roger Federer (playing this early morning) was expected, with a powerful game and health intact. And this factor, as he has emphasized so many times, seems even more crucial than the authority of his own tennis.

During these two weeks at Flushing Meadows, Rafa has played without the usual bandages that protect his battered joints. In addition to his second-round commitment to Thanasi Kokkinakis' injury, the left-hander averages 138.6 minutes on the track. A figure significantly lower than that of 2018 (166.2) when a medical condition in the right knee precipitated the abandonment in the semifinal against Juan Martín del Potro. In 2017, it spent 151.2 minutes on average.

The current scenario seems much more conducive to Rafa, benefiting from the early elimination of seven of the top 10 series heads (Novak Djokovic, Kei Nishikori, Stefanos Tsitsipas, Roberto Bautista, Dominic Thiem, Alexander Zverev and Karen Khachanov). In fact, if nothing is twisted until Sunday, you will enter the decisive duel for the title without having crossed blows with any Top 10.

On a similar highway he already traveled a year ago in New York and last January in Melbourne, when only Djokovic pushed him away from the cup. In fact, in his last six majors on hard court, the Manacorense only measured six rivals from the top of the ladder, with two eliminations, both conditioned by physical problems. The aforementioned before Del Potro and another equally painful against Marin Cilic in the quarterfinals of the Australian Open 2018.

95% at the service

On Tuesday night, Nadal was able to remove the spine from the Croatian. Despite giving up a set and two turns of his serve, he can still boast 95% of games won on duty. "It is one of those parties that helps for the future," the Spanish conceded after boiling Arthur Ashe. In the early morning of Thursday, in the second to last step, the Argentine Diego Schwartzman, old friend and sparring , who has collapsed in the previous seven, leaving just two sets down the road.

The other quarter crossing, between Gael Monfils and Matteo Berrettini, also presages a peaceful semifinal. The French veteran could only be imposed on Rafa in two of the previous 16 duels, both in Doha, at the dawn of January 2009 and 2012. Finally, the surprising Italian, with whom he has never been measured, seems easy prey. Champion in Budapest and Stuttgart and finalist in Munich, his zero experience in these trances (23 years) contrasts with the fierce instinct of Nadal.

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