Rafael continues to have a rough comeback. He played Italian Andreas Seppi in his second-round match in Cincinnati. The Spaniard is clearly vulnerable and has a ways to go before he is back to his usual play.

His serve and groundstrokes are off, and he is currently hitting a lot of errors. It is rather hard to watch his matches because injury has certainly interrupted his once fine form, especially with all the current G.O.A.T. nonsense -- since the current number one found his top form after Nadal was injured and out of the picture.

Despite these facts and two rain delays, the Mallorcan was able to pull off the win and beat Seppi 7-6(4) 7-6(3). One positive that was good to see was his clutch play. When he needed to, he was able to come with big shots that ultimately helped him best the Italian.

Next up for Nadal will be Paul-Henri Mathieu. He currently leads the Frenchman 8-0 in their head-to-head matchup. Despite this stellar record, it will be another test for Nadal tomorrow.

(Image: Denise/tennisfiend)

Juan Carlos Ferrero has advanced into the final of the Croatian Open. He outlasted Andreas Seppi of Italy 6-1 7-6(1) 7-5 after a grueling, 158-minute match.

It looked like the Spaniard would run off with the match after he won the first set easily. Somehow Seppi got back into the match and was able to sneak off with the second set in the tiebreak. The match was even in the third set until Ferrero was able to break in the twelfth game to advance into the final on Sunday.

The former French Open champion has now booked his second final of the year. Ferrero won his first final in Casablanca this year after an almost 6-year title-drought. It is well documented that he has had trouble over those years with injuries, but he has been able to be healthy enough this season to book quarterfinals appearances in Brazil, Argentina and Wimbledon and a semifinal appearance at Queen’s Club. He also helped place Spain in the Davis Cup semifinals with a clutch win in the fifth match against Germany in the quarterfinals.

Ferrero now awaits the winner of the Davydenko-Melzer match. I am sure he would prefer to play Melzer, as he leads 4-2 in their meetings. Ferrero is even at 2-2 against Davydenko with the Russian winning the last-two encounters, which were on clay incidentally. Davydenko has also been playing extremely well over the last three weeks with a title-win in Hamburg last week.

(Image: Getty Images/AFP/Hrvoje Polan)