California, March 20 (Agency) Three-time Indian Wells champion Rafael Nadal reached his fifth final in the California desert with a 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 victory over Carlos Alcaraz on Sunday. Spaniard Nadal will face American Taylor Fritz in the summit clash. “I am super happy to be in the final,” Nadal said in his on-court interview. “It means a lot to me, and I’ll just keep going.”
With the win, Nadal extended his winning streak to 20-0 this season. He had won titles at a Melbourne ATP 250, the Australian Open and Acapulco. If Nadal manages to beat Fritz, he will tie Novak Djokovic for the most ATP Masters 1000 titles in history with 37. “I took it like another semi-final match.
He’s (Alcaraz) not a young player that is 100 in the world and is coming. He is a top player already, so I treated it like that, playing against one of the best players in the world,” Nadal said. “It doesn’t matter if he’s young or not, he’s a great guy, an amazing player and he has a fantastic future. I treated it like this, just tried to go on court, try my best and accept all the challenges. I am through and it was a very important victory for me.”