Djokovic breezes past Nadal to win Qatar crown — ATP Doha

More squeaks and more grunts. Ah!

In his pre-match warm-up hit with Malek Jaziri, Djokovic cut the session short citing pain. The Serbian broke in the second and sixth games and closed the set out to love. He not only retained his serve, but broke Nadal in the very next with an impressive 40-15 margin to stamp his class early. At 4-4 0-40 in the fourth, Nadal stood on the brink but refused to wilt and when he also fought back from behind in the following tie-break he claimed control.

Maybe he was testing the Spaniard a bit.

Nadal has defeated Pablo Carreno Busta, Robin Haase, Andrey Kuznetsov, and Illya Marchenko. The difference was Djokovic was clinical in his approach.

The Serb, who had beaten Berdych in 21 of their previous 23 encounters, lost his very first serve and then faced another break point to go 1-4 down.

“The opponent was too good”.

Agnieszka Radwanska scored a comfortable 6-3, 6-2 victory over Alison Riske of the United States to win the Shenzhen (China) Open. He immediately opened a triple-break point lead in the next game.

Gracious in defeat, Rafa spoke after the match, labelling the world No. 1 as “perfection”. So he’s been trying to, of course, change something, improve, and it’s no surprise to me.

Nadal took the moment in his stride.

Nadal, meanwhile, won only 48% of points on his own first serve and made nine winning returns compared to 30 from Djokovic. “I’m sure next time I’m gonna win against Novak with him”. How can I go against Djokovic? Last night at the Khalifa Complex, both Djokovic and Nadal were in their elements in their respective semi-finals.

Djokovic has also won the last four matches between the pair, most recently winning the semifinals at the year-ending ATP World Tour Finals in 2015 in straight sets against the Spaniard. Djokovic kept his sheet clean.

The task of the size at hand for the world No. 1 was manifest during the opening game.

“It’s a great feeling”. When I say flawless, it’s not one thing in particular. 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. After his historic 2015, I see no reason to believe that he will be any less great this season. “[The Doha title] does definitely give me a great deal of confidence for the rest of the season”, he continued further. I think the two players make for an interesting and fitting comparison. “My grandfather used to call me Falcon”.

Nadal, victor of 67 titles in his career, has now failed to win a hard-court tournament for two full years – since the 2014 Doha event.