Nadal in final as Serb falls TENNIS
Spaniard ends Djokovic hoodoo to seal place in Madrid final and close in on return to rankings’ elite. Trevor Bailey reports.
RAFAEL Nadal recorded a first win over Novak Djokovic in almost three years to seal a place in the Madrid Open final. After a run of seven straight defeats to his rival, dating back to the 2014 French Open final, Nadal reversed the trend with a 6-2, 6-4 victory.
Nadal improved his record on clay this year to 14-0 and will face Austrian Dominic Thiem or Uruguay’s Pablo Cuevas in today’s final. Should he lift the trophy again in Madrid, the Spaniard will overtake Roger Federer in the world rankings and return to the top four.
“What’s important to me is to make it to another final,” Nadal said. “As time goes by, what is important is the titles, not the opponents that you have beaten.
“It’s true that some matches are more important than others. But I’m just here to try to make it the best possible way, to play my best tennis, and of course to beat an opponent such as Novak, it gives you a lot of confidence. It shows you you’re working in the right way.
“It is a great result. To win against Novak by that score you have to be playing very well, otherwise it’s impossible. It was an important match for me. I lost a lot of times in a row. To break that means there are always nerves.
“The circumstances nowadays are completely different compared to those seven matches that occurred before. I think that the last two years perhaps haven’t been my best two years. For Novak, they were really good years.
“I think I played a really good first set. The second set I was a little bit more nervous. I played a little bit shorter. I think then the match was more even. Finally I managed to win it. It’s a very important victory.
“It gives me the possibility to play another final and to continue in a positive line. I am happy the way I played today, being able to make it to the final once again. I’ll try to be 100 per cent and ready for tomorrow’s match.”
Djokovic, who was playing his first tournament since splitting with his long-time coaching team, won just four points in the opening four games as he fell 4-0 down.
“He deserved to win,” the Serbian said. “It wasn’t a very high quality of tennis from my side. I made a lot of unforced errors. His quality was very high. He managed to do whatever he wanted really, especially in the first set.”
Nadal, a four-time Madrid champion, broke the Djokovic serve twice early in the opening set to take the 4-0 lead with barely 20 minutes played.
Nadal was hitting forehand winners from all over the court and comfortably saw out the first set before breaking again at the start of the second.
Djokovic earned his first break point of the match in the 12th game and he took the opportunity to draw level at 2-2, but Nadal was in a ruthless mood and hit back with another break to regain a lead he would not relinquish.
Two match points came and went and Nadal had to save a break point on his own serve before he closed out the match.