Novak Djokovic claimed that elusive winning record against Rafael Nadal with a thoroughly emphastic 6-1, 6-2 victory over the world No.5 in Doha.
Ruthless from the Serb
The task of the size at hand for the world No.1 was manifest during the opening game. The Serb was forced to save break point after Nadal had produced a series of sumptuous forehands that were unsettling the Serb, but Djokovic, whose exertions in Qatar this week have been characterised by laborious starts, held firm to to take the first game.
Nadal, though, wobbled in his opening service game, allowing the Serb’s sumptuous dropshot at 0-30 to foreshadow the remainder of the set. The world No.1 assumed control and broke the Spaniard before holding his serve to open up a 3-0 advantage.
Nadal regained a degree of control, withstanding a 26-shot rally that concluded with a supreme backhand from his opponent, to register his first game of the afternoon, but was obliging in the Serb’s following service game as the world No.1 edged towards the first set.
Respite was in scant supply for Nadal who, after being broke in his opening service game, suffered the same fate with the world No.1 closing in on the first set. Djokovic broke and, in imperious fashioned, held to love to conclude his most impressive set against the Spaniard to date and inch ever closer to that elusive superior head-to-head record.
The voluble Rafa faithful in Doha rallied but after the opening game of the ensuing set, their cries verged towards the futile.
Presses home advantage
Utterly dominant, the world No.1 summoned three break points on Nadal’s opening service game yet, after squandering the first two, prompted the Spaniard into an awry forehand to break. Memories of their meeting in Beijing last October must have surely been evoked.
The Serb held to pronounce his superiority. Nadal, after being ordered around the baseline by the world No.1, ensured a successive break would not be on the cards when he rallied to win only his second game of the last ten.
The Serb was one step ahead and his peerless intelligence was underlined at 0-15 in the fifth game of the set. Having registered that an overhead would be sent towards his forehand side, Djokovic shuttled across and produced a delightful passing shot that had the Spaniard bemused.
Bruised and battered, Nadal’s misery was compounded when Djokovic opened up a 4-1 advantage after the world No.5 had displayed fleeting moments of potency throughout.
Most encouragingly for Nadal was that there were few faults in his performance. On few occasions has the Spaniard displayed such conviction in his first-serve against Djokovic but there was little margin for error here.
The world No.1 exploited his opponents errors and was closing in on his first silverware of the season.
Djokovic fashioned two championship points to ensure of his success.