Novak Djokovic improved to 29-0 lifetime at the China Open with a 6-2, 6-2 beatdown of Rafael Nadal on Sunday afternoon. Djokovic captured his sixth Beijing title after one hour and 30 minutes of play.
“The scoreline–especially in the first set–doesn’t indicate the real battle that we had on the court,” the world No. 1 assessed. “I’m aware of the fact that very few points can decide a winner of the matches I play against the biggest rivals, and Rafa is definitely one of them. He’s the kind of player that is a champion and understands the kind of challenge that a big match presents. He knows how to play on the big stage for the titles.
“That’s why I didn’t want to give him an opportunity to come back to the match and eventually start playing better.”
“I’m very happy the way that I played this week, especially because I was able to improve every single match,” Nadal reflected. “Especially in the quarterfinals after that first set against (Jack) Sock, I changed that dynamic. I played closer to the baseline. [Saturday] I played a good match and today I played a good match.”
Highlights:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1or2oku35I4]
[tweet https://twitter.com/sluggahjells/status/653203588076974080]
At the Tokyo Open, good friends Stan Wawrinka and Benoit Paire battled for the title with Wawrinka coming out on top 6-2, 6-4. The Swiss converted all four of his break chances to cruise in one hour and five minutes.
Highlights:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rw9njw9s5Pk
[tweet https://twitter.com/TennisInsideOut/status/653087087420416000]
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Well, not that much to say. Congrats to Novak’s fans.
From the highlights we can see that Rafa has improved but still easy prey for Novak.
Well done to Rafa for reaching another final and giving himself a chance to play with the best.
According to Djokovic, Rafa was far from easy prey.
Djokovic said as below
“The scoreline–especially in the first set–doesn’t indicate the real battle that we had on the court,” the world No. 1 assessed. “I’m aware of the fact that very few points can decide a winner of the matches I play against the biggest rivals, and Rafa is definitely one of them. He’s the kind of player that is a champion and understands the kind of challenge that a big match presents. He knows how to play on the big stage for the titles.
Vamos Rafa!
Yes, the highlights don’t tell the whole story, I’m aware of that.
Nice of Djokovic to say that I guess but I would rather hear him saying “I had my chances but Rafa was too good today” …. let’s hope we heard this next season.