Novak Djokovic: 'Rafa blew me away from the court in the first set'
World no 1. Novak Djokovic was a set away from conquering Madrid-Rome double but Rafael Nadal was there to deny that, defeating Novak 6-0, 4-6, 6-1 in the final in Rome to lift the 34th Masters 1000 crown and the first in 2019. On Friday and Saturday, Novak had to play two challenging matches against Juan Martin del Potro (saved two match points) and Diego Schwartzman, losing energy ahead of the title clash in different conditions against the mighty opponent who suffered a defeat in the semi-final in three straight ATP events.
Despite that second set setback when he wasted four break points in the second part of the set, Nadal bounced back stronger in the decider to break Novak's resistance and bring the encounter home to celebrate the ninth Rome crown (Noak and Rafa have won 13 of the last 15 titles here since 2005) and leave Novak on two titles in 2019. The Serb was pleased with the way he fought in the second set after suffering a bagel in the first and with the fact he managed to stay in the match without having too much left in the tank.
"I'm really glad that I managed to send the match into the third set, considering the first where I was blown away from the court. The third set was not much different from the first. The first three or four games of the third set were quite close. Maybe that's where I had a slight chance to kind of build on the momentum that I had from winning the second set. Yeah, I was running out of fuel a little bit today. Just missed that half a step, especially on the backhand side, and Rafa used it very well. He's been playing some terrific tennis throughout the entire week and was just too strong today. I think it was a great week considering I was one shot away from losing the quarter-final against del Potro.
As I've said, I haven't played my best today, I haven't felt my best but at the same time I managed to fight. That's the positive I take from it. In the second set, it was better. Just overall, yeah, as I said, I lacked a little bit more of a dynamic movement, attacking the ball. Well, I mean, his level was very high, without a doubt, throughout the entire tournament. I knew that. But, I started a bit slower, not as fresh in my legs and he used that fact. It took me a bit of time to kind of get used to his pace of the ball, which is entirely different. I played last, what, two, three matches, three matches out of four matches in the night session, with different bounce. It doesn't bounce higher than the waistline. During the day it's different, especially with his forehand. I tried to get used to where the ball is bouncing, where I have to kind of position myself to hit it well."
from Tennis World USA http://bit.ly/2VwPiBW
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