News By/Courtesy: Rajnish Suman | 20 May 2019 23:38pm IST

Rafael Nadal defeated world no.1 Novak Djokovic in the finals of the Italian Open held on Sunday to win his 9th Italian Open title. Before this win, Rafael and Novak shared the record of 33 master titles. With this win, Nadal now has 34 master titles and 9th Rome title. After losing in the semifinals of three straight clay-court tournaments, Nadal dominated for stretches against his longtime rival Djokovic in a 6-0, 4-6, 6-1 win Sunday for a record-extending ninth Italian Open title. It was his 81st tournament win and it takes him 34-33 ahead of Djokovic in Masters 1,000 Series titles. Victory is a boost before the French Open for Nadal, who was beaten by Djokovic in the Australian Open final in January and had lost at the semi-final stage in his past four tournaments. The 54th meeting between these top two players showed Nadal at his best in his trademark forehand. Nadal broke in the opening game of the decider, prompting Djokovic to demolish his racquet in frustration and with the Serb continuing to falter with drop shot attempts, Nadal surged to a 58th clay-court title. With this win, Nadal improved his clay court head to head record against Novak to 17-7 and that of the career to 28-26.

Section Editor: Puja Jakhar | 20 May 2019 23:44pm IST


Tags : #Nadal #RafaelNadal #Djokovic #ItalianOpen #ATPMastersTitle

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