Recap of the fiercest battles of 2012: Djokovic vs. Nadal – French Open 2012
King of clay, Rafael Nadal, secured his long-awaited win against the Serbian professional, Novak Djokovic. He consolidated his triumph after a four-set thriller, 6-4, 6-3, 2-6, 7-5, in a rain drenched match at the French Open Grand
Slam tournament.
In a post match interview, Nadal told the media, "For me it is a real honour. Borg is one of the greatest in history, one of the more charismatic players in history. The comparison with the great Bjorn is fantastic. He's always
been very nice to me, so I have to say thanks. "For me, it is a real emotional day, winning another time here. For me, the important thing is to win Roland Garros even if it's the first, second, third, or seventh [time]. That's what makes me very happy. [I'm]
very happy [with] the way that I played today, because I played much more aggressive."
The match was initially delayed for 34 minutes but Nadal started off by serving at an exceptionally high paced momentum. He battled with his full might and potential, not giving his rival a single chance to take over and used his
experience to the maximum. The right-hander Serb did not give up against the might of his experienced challenger and took over in the third set.
The world number four, Nadal, bombarded his challenger with 62 percent initial serve precision. He nudged forward with four aces and also double faulted four times in total. He made just 29 unforced errors pocketing away 45 of
73 first and 24 of 45 second serve points. The higher ranked Serbian contender secured the 59 percent initial serve accuracy with just three aces and committed double faults four times. He converted 45 of 73 first and 22 of 50 second delivery points in response.
Djokovic capitalized on seven of 10 serve break opportunities and the Spaniard secured nine of 17.
Djokovic secured his monopoly at the hard courts of the Melbourne and the two world champions struggled hard in a five set match. The 26-year-old, Nadal, did not let the young Serbian take the lead on the clay court tournaments.
He gave him a straight-sets defeat in the final round of the Internazionali BNL d’Italia in Rome and the final round of the Monte-Carlo Masters.
The left-hander is the 11 times Grand Slam Champion and has dominated the clay courts for years. He bags home 50 ATP World Tour titles in total and 36 of them came on clay courts.
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