It may only be an exhibition, and a lucrative one at that, but Rafael Nadal kicked off his 2016 campaign with a title at the Mubadala World Tennis Championship on Saturday. Nadal triumphed in the final 7-6(2), 6-3 over Milos Raonic after one hour and 30 minutes.
The world No. 5 steamrolled through the opening tiebreaker before seizing a significant upper hand by breaking for 3-1 in the second. He eventually converted match point on serve at 5-3 with a punishing inside-out forehand.
“It’s a great feeling,” Nadal assured. “It’s a great way to start the new season winning against two of the best players in the world (Raonic and David Ferrer) and playing at the right level. I played a good level of tennis and I’m happy for that.
This is the third time he has prevailed in Abu Dhabi, having previously lifted the trophy in 2009-10 and 2010-11.
“I’m happy to win the title here in Abu Dhabi again,” the No. 2 seed added.  “I tried hard every year (to win), but I feel that I arrived in very good shape this year.”
“It’s been phenomenal,” Raonic agreed. “It’s been a premium way to set up 2016. You get three great matches against great players (Nadal, Stan Wawrinka, and Kevin Anderson) and it gives you a lot to build off–a lot of insight. Hopefully things will keep going well through the first month of the year.”
It was a productive day for Spaniards, as Ferrer preceded Nadal’s victory by securing third place in the six-man field with a 6-7(1), 6-4, 10-8 victory over Wawrinka in a showdown between the two semifinal losers.
Wawrinka seemed to be in control of the match most of the way, but he struggled when playing from ahead. The fourth-ranked Swiss dropped the second set after taking the first and he could not seal the deal despite leading 5-0 in the super-tiebreaker. Ferrer took 10 of the last 13 points to steal the win from his opponent’s grasp after one hour and 28 minutes of competition.
Ferrer and Nadal will officially begin their seasons this upcoming week in Doha, while Wawrinka heads to Chennai as the two-time defending champion of that 250-point tournament.
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congrats to Rafa
Vamos Rafa
Ricky I hope nadline submits her report soon. I saw the highlights on youtube and things are beginning to look better. But until he beats Djoker, I will not proclaim Rafa is back. Currently there is a huge difference in level between even no. 2 and Djoker. A poster on some other tennis site pointed out that if Djoker reaches the final at Doha, he would have reached the final of every tournament in the last 365 days!!!
If Rafa leaves balls short or focuses on Djoker’s backhand, I will hide behind the sofa!
Mary, I think you will see a very different Rafa in Doha to the Rafa of early 2015. He looks like he’s back to his old self and is playing with confidence, going to the net often even against a big server like Raonic. Raonic brought his best game against Rafa and it wasn’t enough. Raonic’s game has improved immensely and is more than just a servbot now but Rafa’s placement and ground strokes had the crowd squealing in amazement.
Both Stan and Anderson looked very ineffective against Raonic but he was tamed by Rafa. I am not saying this because I’m biased, but Rafa made the exho as many of the spectators found the first day a little bit boring, especially the Anderson vs Raonic match. The tournament was buzzing on the 2nd and 3rd days with Rafa playing and his entrances to the court were electric. I hope to post a video of it at some stage. I’m a technophobe; I have tried Dropbox as suggested by hawkeye with no luck yet so when my daughter comes home from work, I hope she will be able to help me reduce the size of the file as suggested by Ricky.
Someone said that last year’s turnout wasn’t as well supported in spite of Djokovic being there.
Ferrer is playing some great tennis, much better tennis than he was playing 5 years ago.
I wasn’t able to attend all the post match press conferences because the next match started whilst the pressers were going on so it was difficult to do both. Even the autograph sessions were very short. They allowed people to queue round the block the knowing that the cut off point would be after about 10 minutes.
Missed the match – but congrats to Rafa…
Polls
Federer – Brisbane
Anderson – Chennai
Rafa – Doha
Rafa is going to be tough to beat in Doha. Nole shakes off some rust. Federer comes out strong. Stan too unpredictable.
Hoping for fed to win Brisbane Lopez to win Doha and Stan to win chennai but my predictions are Roger in Brisbane Djoker in Doha and Stan in chennai.
thats 2 of 3
Crrection:
…every tournament he has played in the last 365 days…
Stan was a little off but he cannot give away 5-0
Ferrer is looking strong. Ageless like Roger.
It wasn’t easy to bite that thing…
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CXxeGMbUwAAtTpb.png
A short video about biting ‘that thing’:
https://twitter.com/Rafameila/status/683334694201511936
A great feeling to win:
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CXxgfJSUsAAKbA7.jpg
I saw Rafa struggling to find a way to bite that trophy during the ceremony! I was afraid he might lose a tooth!
Congratulations to Rafa on starting off the new year with a win!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GS6sgnQXHW4
Full match in French