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Posted at 7:26 a.m., Sunday, July 22, 2007

Tennis: Nadal captures Mercedes Cup

Associated Press

STUTTGART, Germany — Rafael Nadal dropped serve three times and had to sweep five straight games to win the Mercedes Cup with a 6-4, 7-5 win over Stanislas Wawrinka of Switzerland on Sunday.

The top-seeded Spaniard hadn't previously dropped serve in the tournament, but had to rally from 5-2 down in the second set to claim his sixth title this year and his 93rd win in 94 matches on clay.

"I had a little luck, but I'm very happy I played well here," Nadal said. "After losing the Wimbledon final to (Roger) Federer, it was hard to have a good tournament."

Nadal is 23-5 in career finals, the highest winning percentage in the Open era.

The 50th-ranked Wawrinka had only won one match in eight attempts heading into the tournament after returning in May from a knee injury.

"I had almost no self-confidence before coming into this tournament," Wawrinka said. "I'm just enjoying it at the moment. I played a really good match against the best clay-court player in the world."

Wawrinka said he received a text message from Federer, who beat Nadal at Hamburg on May 20 for the Spaniard's only loss on clay in his streak.

"He ... didn't give me any advice about how to beat Nadal," Wawrinka said.