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.
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Saturday’s final will also be the 99th of Nadal’s career and Djokovic’s 16th consecutive ATP final.
Despite being broken four times, second-seeded Rafael Nadal advanced to the semifinals with a 6-3, 5-7, 6-4 win against Andrey Kuznetsov of Russian Federation. I played one of my best matches ever.
“I’m playing the tennis of my life, and I will try to nurture and cherish those moments on the court”.
It was the dream final, and all the more highly anticipated for coming in the first full week of the new season: Indeed this would be the first ATP title handed out in 2016..
The world No1 by a country mile, Djokovic, is the dominant force in tennis, a position encapsulated in the 12 months since he last played in Doha.
Their most recent meeting at a Grand Slam was at the quarter-finals of the 2015 French Open – on Nadal’s favourite surface, clay, with eventual finalist Novak Djokovic going down to Stan Wawrinka and seeing his dreams of a calendar slam that year cut short by the Swiss. The series is now tied 23-all, with Djokovic winning the past four matches. The Spaniard, looking to recapture the form that has made him a 14-time Grand Slam victor, won the first set comfortably enough but from there the real drama started. His serve was clicking, and another break in the sixth game put him up 5-1 and within reach of grabbing the first set.
Both players needed only two sets to get through their semifinal matches on Friday in Doha.
Gracious in defeat, Rafa spoke after the match, labelling the world No. 1 as “perfection”. Djokovic reeled off six straight games to take the first set and also edged a see-saw second. The champion did so again in the fifth game to go 4-1 ahead and the writing was clear on the wall for Nadal.
“This is exactly how I want to start the year, getting to the final in the first tournament of the year, against one of my biggest rivals”. Despite that, the Serb never looked like going out, especially after Mayer squandered his best chance in the second set.
“Every time we play against each other there’s a lot at stake regardless of where we play”, Djokovic said.
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Marchenko kicked off the tournament with a straight-set win against fourth seed David Ferrer, which was followed by another comfortable 6-4, 6-2 victory against Teymuraz Gabashvili.
