Tennis: Novak Djokovic Outduels Rafael Nadal; 2011 Streak at 37

Posted by Sabrina B. @gametimegirl

Novak Djokovic extended his recent mastery over top-ranked Rafael Nadal with a 6-4, 6-4 win in the Italian Open final Sunday that stretched the Serb’s unbeaten start this year to 37 matches.

The second-ranked Djokovic has defeated Nadal in all four finals they’ve played this year. He beat the Spaniard for the first time on clay in last week’s Madrid Open final.

Djokovic has now become the first player to beat Nadal on clay twice in the same year, a feat that comes exactly a week before the French Open starts.

Djokovic could overtake Nadal for the No. 1 ranking the week after Roland Garros.

Djokovic’s streak this year trails only John McEnroe’s 42-0 start in 1984. Overall, Djokovic has won 39 consecutive matches, stretching back to Serbia’s Davis Cup title in December. That’s sixth best in the Open era, seven behind Guillermo Vilas’ record set in 1977.

Earlier, Maria Sharapova beat Samantha Stosur 6-2, 6-4 in the woman’s final for the biggest clay-court title of her career.

Nadal had won this tournament five of the past six years and entered the final with a 31-1 career record in Rome. His only previous loss came to countryman Juan Carlos Ferrero in his opening match three years ago.

Djokovic attributed his win in Madrid partly to the altitude and faster conditions there. The conditions at the Foro Italico are more similar to those in Paris, perhaps making this victory more telling.

Djokovic also had to recover from a three-hour semifinal win over Andy Murray that ended near midnight Saturday. Fortunately for Djokovic, the rain delay before the woman’s final gave him more time to rest.

Despite the delay, nearly all of the 10,500 ticket holders were on hand for the Djokovic-Nadal match, and with Italy located geographically in between Spain and Serbia, both players received about equal support.

Djokovic broke to take a 5-3 lead in the opening set when Nadal shanked a backhand long off his racket frame, but Nadal broke right back in the next game.

With Nadal serving at 4-5, he made three baseline errors to give Djokovic his first set point, which Djokovic won by taking advantage of a Nadal backhand that sat up high inside the court, setting up a backhand crosscourt winner for Djokovic.

While Nadal was using more loopy topspin shots to keep the ball in the court, Djokovic flattened his shots out often, skimming balls just over the top of the net.

After they traded breaks early in the second set, Djokovic began screaming to himself and pumping himself up after each winner. He also had to stretch his aching muscles in between points.

With rain drops beginning to fall again, Djokovic closed the match out with another break, then fell to the clay on his back.

-AP