Novak Djokovic beats Rafael Nadal to win Qatar Open title

Djokovic and Nadal will be squaring off for the 47th time in their careers when they clash in the final on Saturday.

Djokovic closed out the opening after 31 minutes, firing 16 winners and four aces. I think the two players make for an interesting and fitting comparison.

Nadal, the number two seed in Doha, has set up the enticing prospect of meeting Novak Djokovic in the final.

The Serb dominated Nadal in every facet of the game and needed little over an hour to win the final, and with the Australian Open right around the corner, Djokovic once again looks like the man to beat.

Contesting his 16th consecutive final, Djokovic won his 12th title since losing to Ivo Karlovic in the Doha quarterfinals last January.

“I played very much ideal tennis”, Djokovic said. Agassi, meanwhile, won his last Masters title, an impressive seventeenth, at the advanced age in tennis of thirty four, whilst Djokovic is on twenty six, just one behind record holder Nadal, and on current form seems likely to win thirty of these lucrative titles sooner than later.

Despite initially being a break up, Nadal lost a see-saw second set as Kuznetsov’s powerful forehands brought him back into the match.

Djokovic served for 5-1 with a serve-and-double-volley victor, and Nadal’s hold simply put off the inevitable, a 6-2 victory for Djokovic of extraordinary and relentless accuracy in 73 minutes, 30 winners to only 13 unforced errors.

With the first set gone, Nadal had been pushed to the wall, psychologically at least, for his grunts were getting louder and louder with each passing second. – Screen grab off Reuters videoMELBOURNE, Jan 11 – Finally clinching an elusive Australian Open crown is Andy Murray’s number one goal for the new year but the Briton concedes that his hopes of success at Melbourne Park may rest on champion Novak Djokovic having an off-day.

The moment hardly had an impact on the calm composure of Djokovic, who won the next game to go 5-1 up.

Nadal has defeated Pablo Carreno Busta, Robin Haase, Andrey Kuznetsov, and Illya Marchenko. I played one of my best matches ever. “He was too good today”. I am playing well, and I am going to work hard to try and be ready for Australia. “You never know how these things go”. Djokovic led from start to finish, and the final score of 6-1, 6-2 reflects just how one-sided this match was.