Nadal Captures Record-Equalling 17th Masters 1000 Trophy

World No. 3 Rafael Nadal won a record-equalling 17th ATP World Tour Masters 1000 title Sunday when he overcame fellow Spaniard David Ferrer 7-5, 6-2 in a rain-hit final at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia in Rome.

At the age of just 23, Nadal has drawn level with the retired Andre Agassi, who has held the record of 17 ATP World Tour Masters 1000 titles since winning his last of the coveted shields in Cincinnati in 2004, aged 34. Roger Federer is in second place with 16 Masters 1000 titles.

Nadal won his first ATP World Tour Masters 1000 title at the age of 18, when he defeated Guillermo Coria in the 2005 Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters final. Two weeks ago he became the first player in the Open Era to win a tournament title for six straight years when he crushed Fernando Verdasco in Monte-Carlo to claim his 16th Masters 1000 title. Overall, he has compiled a 175-35 match record and has a 17-6 mark in finals.

As the winner, Nadal received 1000 South African Airways 2010 ATP Ranking points and €434,000, while Ferrer, who finished runner-up in his first ATP World Tour Masters 1000 final, earned 600 ranking points and €203,000 in prize money.

With two ATP World Tour Masters 1000 titles to his name already in 2010, Nadal has made a strong early claim for a place in the elite eight-man field at the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals, to be held at The O2 in London from 21-28 November.

In his post-match interview after defeating Fernando Verdasco in the semi-finals Saturday, Ferrer said his game plan against Nadal would be to play “very aggressively” and the high-risk tactic from the Valencia resident made for a very competitive first set in the pair’s 14th meeting.

The score was level at 4-4 in the first set when the light drizzle that had been a constant accompaniment fell harder and play was suspended for the first time. On the resumption, Ferrer held for a 5-4 lead before putting Nadal under pressure with a 30-0 lead on his Davis Cup teammate’s serve. With the confidence of a 10-3 career lead over Ferrer, though, Nadal quickly turned the situation around, holding serve before converting his sixth break point chance on the Ferrer serve for a 6-5 lead.

Aggressive play off Nadal’s second serve earned Ferrer his only break point of the match as the No. 3 seed served for the set, but the left-hander quickly alleviated the threat with a swinging serve out wide and went on to close out the one-set lead.

Looking to build on his lead as the weather began to worsen once more, Nadal took advantage as Ferrer went for too much in his bid to dictate the points and as the right-hander over-hit a backhand, Nadal secured a 2-1 lead.

At that point, play was once again halted due to rain and it was over an hour and a half later before the players were called back to court to finish the match. Keen to not delay any longer, Nadal went for yet more aggression when play resumed and the pressure told on Ferrer in the seventh game. Two double faults from the right-hander proved costly as Nadal clinched a 5-2 lead and, ruthless as ever, Nadal quickly sealed victory on serve after one hour and 44 minutes.

Nadal won the Rome title for the fifth time, having previously triumphed in 2005-2007 and last year with victory over Novak Djokovic in the final. He holds a 27-1 event record.

World No. 17 Ferrer, who leads the ATP World Tour with a 23-4 clay-court mark in 2010, was bidding for his second title of the season. During the Latin American “Golden Swing” in February he finished runner-up to Juan Carlos Ferrero in the Buenos Aires final, before avenging that defeat a week later with victory in Acapulco. He came into Rome on the strength of back-to-back semi-final showings in Monte-Carlo (l. to Nadal) and at the Barcelona Open BancSabadell (l. to Verdasco).