Rafael Nadal vs. Novak Djokovic 2016

Djokovic was ruthless in his destruction of Nadal as he raced to a 6-1 6-2 victory in 73 minutes, giving the world number one his 60th Tour title and a 24th victory over his long-term rival.

Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal will break their 23-23 head-to-head record when they meet for the 47th time in the Qatar Open final Saturday.

“Obviously from the first to the last point I managed to impose my own tactical approach and strategy and what I have kind of prepared myself for, and the conditions were played to my favour”.

Nadal won 100 per cent of all his first service points in the first set, 89 per cent overall and gave up only one break point, which he held.

World No. 1 Djokovic progressed through to Saturday’s final after overcoming Tomas Berdych in a bruising encounter, 6-3, 7-6 (7-3). “I don’t know anybody who played tennis like this ever”.

French Open 2004 Champion, Argentinian Gaston Gaudio presenting the Golden Falcon Trophy to the Champion of the Qatar ExxonMobil Open 2016, Serbian Novak Djokovic. If it could do that and break the four-match losing streak, it would be a sign that the old Nadal is back and that he would be a force to be reckoned with this upcoming season.

So Nadal knew only too well that he had a fight on his hands in this his 99th final, and that was without looking at his hard-court title run. “So I just congratulate him for a great effort”. Djokovic quickly cranked up the volume by breaking Nadal in game 2 with a neat volley at 30-0 followed by deep forehand that the Spaniard could not return from the baseline. “It’s always a great challenge and both of us had to go through a lot of emotions before the match getting ready and kind of analyzing and preparing tactically with the team”.

He begins the defence of his Australian Open title later this month.

“He played so insane with fantastic shots”, Nadal said of Kuznetsov via USA Today.

Rafael had some troubles playing Illya Marchenko in his last game, but what matters it he won.

After wasting a chance to serve out the second set in a nervous 10th game, Dimitrov dominated the tiebreaker and forced a decider.

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. “It appears time to time, but it’s nothing that really is major that I will be concerned about”.