Rafael Nadal continued his sizzling hardcourt form beating John Isner 7-6 (8) 7-6 (3) in the final of the Western and Southern Open yesterday.

It sets the Spaniard up as the red-hot favourite heading into the US Open.

Unbeaten on the surface in 15 matches this year and coming off a win in Montreal, the third-ranked Nadal, who will move up to number two today, won back-to-back hardcourt finals on consecutive weeks for the first time in his career.

Nadal needed nearly two hours on a muggy centre court to tame the towering in-form American, who had knocked off three top 10 players, including world number one Novak Djokovic, to earn his spot in the final.

But the big-hitting Isner had no answers for the relentless Nadal, who has now claimed nine titles from 12 events this season. It was the 59th win of Nadal’s career but first in nine tries on the Cincinnati hardcourts.

Nadal played the entire match without a single break opportunity against Isner but came up big in both tiebreaks taking the first set 10-8.