Nadal Barely Gets Passed Djokovic

Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic had quite the epic battle today. After four hours and two minutes of play, Nadal eked by Novak Djokovic 3-6 7-6(5) 7-6-(9) in another great match between these two players. The fact that Nadal was left standing at the end of the day speaks volumes of Nadal as a champion because the beginning of the match did not look so promising for the Spaniard.

Rafael Nadal came out looking sluggish and was often caught flat-footed. He was not moving well and was hitting a lot of unforced errors. Conversely, Djokovic was sharp from the first point. His shotmaking was impeccable. The result was the Serb jumped out to a 3-0 lead. Luckily for the Nadal, he stopped the bleeding by holding serve, but he did so under duress. Djokovic was able to off Nadal to take the first set. The advantage took all the wind out of the hometown crowd.

In the second set, Nadal called for the trainer after game two, and it looked like the beginning of the end of the Mallorcan because Djokovic was hitting on all cylinders. Nadal was still able to hold onto his serve but had to really fight off the Serb throughout the set. In taking care of his serve, Nadal was able to force the set into a tiebreak. He was able to ratchet up his game enough to secure a mini-break and was able to hold on to win the second set.

In the third set, Djokovic struck first with a break in game four. Nadal broke back to level the set. Nadal stepped up his strokes and was back to his usual style of play by running his opponent around the court. Djokovic was visibly tired and called the trainer after game five after suffering from cramps. The two players dug in on their service games and took the match to a third-set tiebreak.

The two players saved their best for the tiebreak. They were really slugging it out and going for the most insane shots. Both players were hitting big shots and running each other around the court. With the match being so close, both players did not back down and kicked it up a gear.

Djokovic secured a minibreak at 4-3, but a forehand error gave the advantage back. A Nadal forehand error then gave Djokovic a match point at 6-5. Nadal saved one match point with the biggest forehand winner ever. He then hit a backhand error and gave Djokovic another match point. Nadal saved the second match point with another big forehand and catching the Serb off balance. The crowd was awakened really for the first time in the match. A Djokovic error handed Nadal his first match point, and now the crowd went into full soccer-cheer mode. Now, Djokovic received a chance to save a match point by luring Nadal into the net with a drop shot and hitting a subsequent winner. Djokovic followed up with a big serve to give him his third match point. Nadal saved another match point with a big serve that cause the Serb’s backhand to go long. The Mallorcan followed up with another big forehand winner after a Djokovic return to secure match point number two at 10-9. Two times is a charm because the Spaniard was able to convert his match point with another big forehand winner.

It was a remarkable win for Nadal because he won a match that he should have lost. Djokovic played really well the entire game, but he allowed Nadal to hang around. When the opportunity presented itself, Nadal got his act together enough to sneak off with the match.

The win keeps his clay-court winning streak alive that is now at 33 matches. He is now in his third Masters final on clay this year. He has already won three of the four Masters titles of the season and is going for his fourth Masters title of the year.

It will be interesting to see if Nadal will have enough left to keep his winning streak intact after having such an intense match.

(Images: Mutua Madrilena Madrid Open)