Djokovic stuns clay king Nadal in Madrid
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Novak Djokovic poses with the trophy during the awarding ceremony for men's singles at the Madrid Open tennis tournament in Madrid, capital of Spain, on May 8, 2011. Djokovic beat Rafael Nadal 2-0 to win the champions. (Xinhua/Chen Haitong) |
Serb Novak Djokovic beat Spanish favorite Rafael Nadal on Sunday to win the final of the Madrid Masters.
Djokvic beat the world number one 7-5, 6-4 in front of a partisan Madrid crowd to maintain an incredible unbeaten start to 2011.
The Serb's win was all the more impressive because as well as the pressure from the crowd, the match was played on Nadal's favourite beaten clay surface. Nadal had always beaten Djokovic on clay in all of their previous meetings and the Spaniard had not lost a match on the surface since losing in the quarterfinals of the French Open almost two years ago.
Djokavic took a tight first set by breaking Nadal's serve in the 12th game and again broke the Spaniard in the ninth game of the second set to leave himself serving for the match and the tournament.
His win means that Djokovic has now won 24 titles in his career, while this year he is unbeaten in all 32 matches he has played. The Serb now has to be considered Nadal's main rival for the French Open later this month.
