Rafael Nadal advances to final at Qatar Open

The last time that Nadal beat Djokovic was at the 2014 final at Roland Garros where Nadal won his ninth title. Nadal has dropped two sets but has looked sharp this tournament.

Djokovic needed just 31 minutes to breeze through the first set, in the clash of the top two seeds in Doha.

1 erased memories of a quarter-final exit in Doha previous year (l.to Karlovic), capturing his sixth consecutive ATP World Tour title and 60th overall at the tour-level.

“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”, Djokovic said.

“I am living the time of my life”.

Clearly, Djokovic has owned the rivalry as of late, winning eight of the past nine matchups. “I’m just looking forward to a great battle”. Having finished at 1.47am local time, it was fitting that during the presentation ceremony chairs were brought onto court for both players to enjoy a well-deserved sit down. This is the first time I lead head-to-head (smiles).

“I played pretty much ideal tennis today”.

“It’s still very early for me to talk about the Grand Slam in a year”, Djokovic said, reports Yahoo Sports.

“It is always easier said than done”.

Nadal has defeated Pablo Carreno Busta, Robin Haase, Andrey Kuznetsov, and Illya Marchenko.

“I know I can do a few things better, but the real thing is with these conditions, playing during the night and with the feeling of the ball here, it’s so hard to have chances against him playing like this. I am here to fight again and I am going go keep working so hard to be ready for Australia and the rest of the season”. It feels like I am playing at home.

Djokovic found another break in the next game, all but ending the final in the process. “Let’s see what happens”, Djokovic told the crowd of his upcoming final against Nadal.

The Czech put up more resistance in the second set, but Djokovic was the steadier player in the tiebreaker to wrap up his 22nd victory over Berdych in 24 career matches.

The win sets up a semifinal match with Austrian Dominic Thiem while the man he beat in last year’s final, Milos Raonic, takes on Bernard Tomic in the other semifinal on Saturday. The world No. 1 assumed control and broke the Spaniard before holding his serve to open up a 3-0 advantage.

This event marked the only occasion on which the Serb failed to reach a final in 2015, but lightning has not struck twice in Doha. Seconds later, Djokovic produced two backhand winners on Nadal’s serve before honing in on a volley to break the Spaniard in game 5 for a 4-1 lead. Djokovic responded by coming forward himself, and held. Both of us go through a lot of emotions before the match. So it does definitely give me a great deal of confidence for the rest of the season.