Nadal Wins Rogers Cup 2013 Title

Rafael Nadal is  the current favorite for the US Open after his Rogers Cup 2013 win over Milos Raonic (11th seed). Nadal went ahead to the championship after a definitive win over top seeded Novak Djokovic.

After their head to head battle at the 2013 French Open semifinal that took almost five hours, Rafael Nadal defeated Novak Djokovic again in the semi-finals of the Rogers Cup with a 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 score. The match between the world #1 and #3 tennis players was so intense that spectators barely sat on their seats.

Rafa vs Novak

A veteran of matches against the most formidable legends of his time, Nadal’s most recent nemesis is world #1 Novak Djokovic from Serbia. Two months have passed since Nadal and Djokovic met on the battle field at the French Open. Nadal won that match and the Majorca native again proved that he is the better player. Rafa’s performance gave the audience a glance of his agility and aggressiveness by continually throwing baseline rallies.

Spain’s pride and glory

Rafael Nadal, former #1 in the world of tennis and now ranked third is still considered to be the best player on clay courts. His performance on the surface earned him the title “King of Clay.” Nadal is the only tennis player to hold a record of most consecutive wins on a specific tournament. However, Nadal’s disappointing first round defeat at Wimbledon in June caused a resurfacing of rumors about his health and fitness to compete.

Head to head clash

The clash between Nadal and Djokovic ended with a tiebreaker which Nadal dominated at 6-0. The match was decided when Djokovic’s forehand resulted in the third match point for Nadal. This was the Spaniard’s first win against Djokovic in the last three years on hard court.

Commentators and spectators said that Nadal greatly improved in terms of his performance on hard courts by 9-0. With his dominance, the Spaniard was able to boost his entire record in opposition to Djokovic by 21-15. Nadal has always been very skillful and is regarded by his contemporaries as one of the best in the history of tennis.

Nadal’s gameplay

In an interview after the semifinal match, Nadal stated that he played very aggressively so as to level up his game play. He also added that if he did not play the way he did, he would not have been able to perform very well on that type of surface. Nadal was also very happy in terms of his decisions during the clash with his Serbian rival. He was also very glad that all his serves worked very well. According to Nadal, he intentionally stuck to the baseline approach. He tried his best to have his shots as close as it could be to the baseline.

Losing to Nadal on hard courts is a very significant loss to Djokovic who has a reputation on hard courts. Djokovic said that the winner of the game was decided by very few points. He also added that they both had their chances to win, but conceded that Nadal played better.