Rafael Nadal hitting all the right notes ahead of French Open title defence as Spaniard beats world No 1 Novak Djokovic to Italian Open title
- Rafael Nadal put on a show as he beat Novak Djokovic in the Italian Open final
- The Spaniard produced a dominant 6-0, 4-6, 6-1 win to take the title in Rome
- It proved to be Nadal’s 34th Masters level title, one more than his beaten rival
Rafael Nadal scored an emphatic win against world No 1 Novak Djokovic to claim the Italian Open in Rome.
Nadal managed to slightly erase the memory of the painful thrashing he received at the Australian Open by beating Djokovic 6-0, 4-6, 6-1 to claim his 34th Masters level title.
It was a timely morale booster heading into the usual defence of his French Open title, as he had failed to win any prior events in his clay court campaign.
Rafael Nadal showed he is in top form as he emphatically won the Italian Open in Rome
Nadal beat world No 1 Novak Djokovic and even produced a first set ‘bagel’ on his rival
The world No 2 sparked wild celebrations at the end as he sprayed champagne on court
That said, it looked like it could have been even better when he registered his first ever ‘bagel’ set against his great rival in the opener.
That Djokovic fought back in the second like his life depended on it in the second may prove to be significant, as this might otherwise have been a very deflating episode as he seeks a fourth straight Grand Slam win.
And the Serb will also be reassured by knowing that, due to some of the absurd scheduling in Rome, his legs were not as strong for this encounter as they will be over the Parisian fortnight.
While no foregone conclusion, it will be a shock if these top two seeds do not meet again in the Roland Garros final.
Djokovic was overwhelmed early on but did valiantly to go on and claim the second set
But Nadal is a master on clay and soon established his dominance as he coasted to the title