Nadal Maintains Reign Over Berdych

© Getty ImagesRafael Nadal won his 12th meeting in a row with Tomas Berdych.

Two-time BNP Paribas Open champion Rafael Nadal reached his fourth final at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden on Saturday, defeating sixth-ranked Tomas Berdych 6-4, 7-5. Nadal has won 12 straight matches in a row against Berdych and is one victory away from notching his 600th match win.

"Today I was very nervous at the end of the match and was lucky that my serve worked amazing in the last game in the important moments," said Nadal. "There are some things that you need to adjust, and victories like today helps [me] a lot for [my] confidence."

Nadal is bidding to lift his third consecutive trophy on the ATP World Tour during a remarkable comeback run from a left knee injury. After finishing runner-up in Vina del Mar (l. to Zeballos) to begin his season, Nadal claimed back-to-back titles in Sao Paulo (d. Nalbandian) and Acapulco (d. Ferrer). He is riding a 13-match win streak.

"Coming back is certainly something amazing for me, totally unexpected, and I received more support than ever from the crowd every place that I played," Nadal said. "That's always a very, very special feeling. Thank you very much [to] all the people."

Berdych was coming off back-to-back final appearances in Marseille (l. to Tsonga) and Dubai (l. to Djokovic). He dropped to an 18-5 season record and a 3-8 mark in ATP World Tour Masters 1000 semi-final matches.

"It was a good tournament. I beat a couple of good guys and I had a good run," reflected Berdych. "My game was also very solid the last couple of weeks that I have been playing... But I'm still trying to push it more and more."

The Spaniard had the upper hand for the majority of the match, until Berdych reached break point for the first time at 4-3 in the second set. Nadal tossed in a double fault to give the Czech an opportunity to serve out the set, but Nadal worked his forehand to break back and regain the momentum. Berdych framed an overhead to get broken at 5-all and subsequently missed four break point chances in the final game. Nadal claimed victory in one hour and 43 minutes.

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