BARCELONA, April 30: Rafael Nadal underlined his status as the king of clay on Sunday when he beat Guillermo Canas 6-3, 6-4 to win the Barcelona Open for the third consecutive year.

The victory extended his record winning streak on the surface to 72 matches.

The Spanish top seed was made to fight hard by the Argentine 12th seed but one break in each set was enough to seal victory and make him only the second man to win the title three years in a row.

Canas, who beat world number one Roger Federer twice on hard courts last month, had two break points in the opening game of the match but that was as close as he came to taking the Spaniard's serve.

The only break in the first set came in the sixth game and after serving out for the set, Nadal repeated the feat in the seventh game of the second to clinch his 20th career title and his 15th on clay.—Reuters