Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal were yesterday preparing to meet for the 47th time and play their 24th final against each other after both won their Qatar Open semi-finals on Friday.
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Without dropping a set all tournament, the 28-year-old pulled off the Qatar Open title in Doha last week, defeating Rafael Nadal 6-1 6-1 in the title-clash.
Djokovic won the Australian Open, Wimbledon and US Open previous year and narrowly missed out on a calendar Grand Slam when losing to Stanislas Wawrinka in the French event at Roland Garros.
Rarely can the current world number five have been beaten so easily and he cut a forlorn figure after the match as he waited for the presentation ceremony.
“I played well there [Melbourne] past year”. The defending champion is one win away from his 89th career title.
Djokovic, the number one seed, is the overwhelming favourite having won 21 of his previous 23 matches against the Czech and neither of those two losses were on a hard court as in Doha.
Nadal finally got on the board in the fourth game of the opening set, but any hopes of a comeback were crushed nearly immediately as Djokovic continued to play exquisite tennis.
Going into the final, Djokovic and Nadal were tied at 23 wins apiece in their career matchups, the most between any players in ATP history. So I just congratulate him and that’s it. The champion did so again in the fifth game to go 4-1 ahead and the writing was clear on the wall for Nadal. I am living the best time of my life and career. Mayer looked poise to force a third set but struggled with his serves in the 10th game of the set, allowing the top-seeded serve to recover from a 4-5 deficit. To win against a player like Nadal, this easily gives me a great deal of confidence going into the Australian Open. So he’s been trying to, of course, change something, improve, and it’s no surprise to me.
Asked if he could achieve the Grand Slam in 2016, Djokovic said, “I think anything is achievable”.
Djokovic took the next two games as well to secure his first ever semi-final appearance at the Qatar Open. The Spaniard dropped just four points on his first serve, saved the solitary break point he faced, fired six aces, no double faults, 16 winners against 13 unforced and was at no point out of control.
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“I’ve been close many times and that’s my number one goal”, he said. I know him. I know his character and what a fighter and a hard worker he is.
