Rafael Nadal has been defeated by the no. 1 player in the world Novak Djokovic in the final of the Monte Carlo Masters. Djokovic won the match in the straight sets by 6-2, 7-6(1).
Nadal had been winning the title at Monte Carlo since the last 8 years. But, his winning streak here was ended yesterday by Djokovic.
In the post match interview, Djokovic said, “Well, it’s really an achievement to defeat Rafa in the finals here. His record has been emphatic in this tournament over the years and I knew that it was going to be a big challenge for me. But, I backed myself and tried to play to my strengths.”
“At one point of time, I was thinking about withdrawing from this tournament. But, eventually, I decided to take part and that, I think, was a great decision.”
In the first set, Djokovic came all guns blazing. He broke Nadal’s serve in the 2nd and the 4th game and raced to a lead of 5-0. Nadal tried to pull things back with a serve hold in the 6th game and a serve break in the 7th game, but, he was pushed so much back initially that even that breakthrough didn’t help him. Djokovic just needed one more serve hold which he got in the 8th game and with that, he sealed the first set by 6-2.
The second set had a lot of excitement in it. First Nadal got a breakthrough in the 5th game and then, held his serve in the next game to take a 4-2 lead. But, Djokovic broke back in the 8th game to make it even-stevens again.
Nadal again got a breakthrough in the 11th game to get ahead by 6-5, but, he was loose on his serve in the next game and he was broken back for the second time in the set. The scores were tied and the set went into the tie breaker.
In the tie breaker, Djokovic got mini breaks early and won it in no time to become the champion.