Rafael Nadal overcomes Novak Djokovic to defend his title – Monte Carlo Rolex Masters 2012
King of Clay, Rafael Nadal, stamps his authority yet another time on his favourite red surface at the Monte Carlo Rolex Masters, winning his eighth straight championship title at the coveted tournament on Sunday. The defending champion overwhelmed the reigning world number one, Novak Djokovic of Serbia, in the final of the ATP (Association of Tennis Association) Masters 1000 event. The final score line was 6-3, 6-1 in favour of the second seeded Spaniard.
As it was already anticipated, Nadal claimed his first championship title of the current year on the clay court without any difficulty. He took barely 78 minutes to defeat the belligerent ‘Mr. Invincible’, Djokovic, in straight sets. The top ranked Serbian had shown his determination to win the Monte Carlo Masters earlier but he appeared no match to the class of the Clay King in the final showdown.
Nadal’s thumping victory finally broke the seven-match winning streak of Djokovic against him. The Serbian has been outmuscling the former world number one in seven consecutive ATP tournament finals. It was hoped that the Sunday’s matchup would be a nail-biting one but it proved out to be a totally one-sided battle, with Nadal dominating every minute of play. He improved 22-3 winning record for the running season and appears to get back his vintage form in the recent two tournaments.
"It's very important to break that situation," said Nadal. "It's important to win a tournament another time. Especially [this] tournament. [Breaking] that situation [and] winning a Masters 1000, one of my favourites, [makes] everything perfect today. To start the clay-court season winning here is an amazing feeling. This tournament is very special for me. My level of tennis was high during the last four matches, since the second round. "
The second seeded defending champion had a phenomenal serve game in the contest, delivering 68 per cent serve on target and dropping merely four points in the entire matchup. He bagged 22 out of 26 first serve points and broke the top seeded Serb five out of eight times en route to victory. On the other hand, Djokovic could secure just 12 out of his 30 first serve points and registered just one break point in the contest to finish on the losing side in the end.
Nadal has not been at his best so far this year but his emphatic title victory against the world number one depicts that the ruthless Spaniard is back in the winning circle and hungry for more titles.
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