Djokovick Beat Nadal To Win Sony Open Title 2014

World number 2 Novak Djokovick defeated world no. 1 tennis player Rafael Nadal to win Sony Open title for 4th time in his career.  Novak djokovick dominated the final and looked in his best form. Sony Open is a Masters 1000 tournament with the total prize money of $ 4,720,380. This year this tournament saw the presence of players like Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovick, Roger Federer, defending champion Andy Murray, Stansilas Wawrinka, David Ferrer, Tomas Berdych, Jo Wilfred Tsonga and many others.

Nadal and Djokovick with their Sony Open 2014 Trophies

Both Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovick got bye over their opponents in the semi-finals. So, the stage was set for the 40th meet between these tennis giants. In the earlier 39 meets Nadal has won 22 matches while his opponent Djokovick has won 17 matches. Rafael Nadal was eying for the first Miami Open (Sony Open) in the 10th attempt while Djokovick was looking for his 4th Sony Open title and second straight Masters 1000 title.

Novak Djokovick who was coming into this tournament after winning the Indian Wells Open 2014 was favorite to win this title. Rafael Nadal who played exceptional tennis during the whole tournament looked completely lost in the final. Nadal lost the first set by 6-3 in just 40 minutes. Trailing the first set by 3-6, Nadal started the second set in same fashion and lost it too by 6-3.

   

"Novak was better than me" - Nadal

This was 3rd straight win for the Serbian over the Spaniard in last four encounters. Winning the Sony Open title Novak Djokovick became only second player in tennis history to win Indian Wells Open and Sony Open back to back twice after the Roger Federer. This was 18th victory for the Serbian over the Spanish no. 1 in 40 encounters.

 " This tournament has been perfect for me " - Djokovick

Novak is ranked 2nd in all time Sony Open winners list with 4 titles and he is behind of the great US tennis player Andre Agassi who has 6 Sony Open title in his name. Novak Djokovick pocketed $ 787,000 along with the 1000 ATP points while Nadal despite losing the final pocketed the amount of $384,065 along with 600 ATP points. 

Djokovick Defeats Federer to Win Indian Wells Open 2014

Former world number 1 Novak Djokovick defeated highest grand slam winner Roger Federer in the hard fought finals of Indian Wells also known as BNP Paribas Open. Indian Wells is a ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tournament with the prize money of $5,240,015  organized at  Indian Wells, USA. Indian Wells saw the participation from the tennis stalwarts like world number 1 Rafael Nadal, Andy Murray, Juan Martin Del-Porto, Richard Gasquet, Stanislas Wawrinka, Tomas Berdych, JW Tsonga in the list of 96 players. Out of these 96 players Novak Djokovick and Roger Federer cemented their place in the finals.

Federer and Djokovick with Indian Wells Trophies (Photo: thehindu.com)

World number 2 tennis star Djokovick defeated local star John Isner in the semi-finals to secure his place in the finals. Djokovick won his match by 7-5, 6-7, 6-1 breaking the hearts of local supporters. While in other semi-final Federer defeated Alexedra Dolgopolov in straight sets by 6-3, 6-1. Dolgopolov made huge upset in his way to the semi-final by defeating Rafael Nadal in 3rd round match.

Federer and Djokovick had faced each other 32 times before this out which 17 matches were won by the Swiss legend Federer while 15 were won by Djokovick. Still Novak Djokovick started as the favorite because of his form and the dominance he has displayed over other players in last couple of years. Before coming into the finals of Indian wells 2014 Federer has won this title 4 times while Djokovick won it 2 times.

Federer started the finals in excellent way and took 3-0 lead over the Djokovick. Federer wasted no time and won the first set by 6-3 in just 31 minutes. Second set was complete opposite of the first set and Djokovick won it by 6-3 make the match 1-1. Djokovick continued his rhythm from second set and took the lead of 5-4 in the tight 3rd set. Federer saved his serve and also broke the Serb to take lead for the first time in 3rd set with 6-5. Djokovick broke the serve of Federer and won the tie-breaker by 7-3. Djokovik won the set by 7-6 and also the match with scoreline of 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 to win Indian Wells for 3rd time.

"I am just very happy and thrilled to be able to win the first title in this season" - Djokovick  

Roger Federer despite loosing the final against Novak Djokovick looked fairly satisfied with his performance in the Indian Wells.  

"It was overall a good performance" - Federer

Indian Wells 2014 his 42nd career title for the Serbian and his 16th win over the Federer in 33 matches. Djokovick has now won 17 Masters 1000 tournaments in his career and he is jointly at 3rd position with Andre Agassi behind of Federer who won 21 and Rafael Nadal who has won record 26. Winning Indian Wells Djokovick pocketed $1,000,000 along with 1000 points while Federer despite losing the final pocketed $500,000 along with 500 points.

Rafael Nadal Wins Rogers Cup 2013 Defeating Milos Raonic in final

                 Rafael Nadal won the Rogers Cup in straight sets against the Canadian Milos Raonic. Raonic facing the former world number 1 Rafael Nadal for the 4^th time in his young career looked quite lost in the match. A lot was expected from him after his dazzling performance in semifinals against the fellow Canadian V Pospisil but he failed to do so.  

Milos Raonic and Rafael Nadal with their Rogers Cup trophies

Nadal defeated world no. 1 Novak Djokovick in the semi finals with the score of 6-4, 3-6, 7-6. With this win now Nadal leads the head to head encounter with the Djokovick 21-15 in their all 36 encounters. While on hard court Djokovick leads with 10-6 win over the Spaniard. Djokovick needs to do some homework as they may face each other in the US Open grand slam.

In the presence of houseful stadium, Canadian star couldn’t perform to his standard. Maybe the presence of Rafael Nadal as his opponent has a lot to do with it. If Raonic had won this match he would get into the top 10 ATP players but now he will have to wait sometime for that. If we analyze the match we can say that Raonic was no match for the Rafael Nadal in the finals. There was pin drop silence in the stadium as the local favorite couldn’t perform to their expectations.   

Rafael Nadal started in his natural style and in no time took a lead with a score of 5-1 over the Canadian. Raonic tried to bounce back but lost the first set with the score 6-2 within 32 minutes. In 2^nd set too, Raonic was trailing 0-2, but he bounced back and made the score 3-2. But after that he lost his plot and lost the second set too in no time with score of 6-2. With the loss of this second set Raonic lost the match with the final score of 6-2, 6-2 in just 68 minutes.

You are not expected to leave any loop hole when you are playing to a player of the caliber of Rafael Nadal. Raonic committed number of mistakes in the match which cost him the finals. Raonic had 3 Double faults while none by Rafael Nadal, Raonic did 22 unforced errors in the comparison of 7 unforced errors by Rafael Nadal. Nadal hit 17 winners while Raonic could hit only 8 and Nadal won all four Break points but Raonic failed to convert even a single one out of three chances he had in the match.

Nadal tasting Rogers Cup

                  With this final win Rafael Nadal won 1000 ATP points and also pocketed the amount of $ 547,300 while the other finalist Milos Raonic won 600 ATP points and also pocketed $ 268,350. Rafael Nadal is only player in the international tennis history to win the ATP 1000 Masters title for 25 times and he is followed by the Swiss legend Roger Federer with 21 titles. Rafael Nadal with the Rogers Cup has won 58 career titles. He looked in complete control in the tournament both physically as well as mentally which is a good sign for him as well as for the all Nadal fans across the world. With this win he has made his intentions clear for the US open tournament starting from August 26^th, 2013. If he plays the way he played in Rogers cup, he is definitely going to win his 13th grand slam.

Is Rafael Nadal Better Than Roger Federer?

                  In the world of tennis Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer don’t need introduction. They are rated as greatest players in the history of lawn tennis. Their rivalry has been considered as the greatest rivalry in open Era of tennis. Rafael Nadal and Federer are very good friends off the field, but on field their rivalry is known to everyone. Before comparing these two greats of tennis, first we go through their achievements till now in their career individually.

King of Clay Rafael Nadal or Swiss Legend Roger Federer

Roger Federer

                Currently ranked number 3 in world , Federer holds the record of holding the position of rank 1 for longest time. He was ranked world number 1 for the record 302 weeks. He also holds the record of winning the most number of grand slams. He has won 17 grand slams in his glorious career. He won Wimbledon 7 times, US open 5times, AUS open 4 times and French open once. For all his records and achievements he is considered as the greatest of all time.

Rafael Nadal

                He is ranked 5 in the world currently and referred as the "King of Clay". He has won in total 13 grand slam in his tennis career out of which he has won French Open 8 times, Wimbledon and US Open  twice while AUS Open once in his glorious career. In the list of top grand slam winners his position is 3^rd after Roger Federer and Pete Sampras. Rafael Nadal is only player in tennis history to win single grand slam 8 or more times. Nadal has also won the Olympic gold medal and he is one of those players who have completed the Golden Slam.

                As both of them have played most of their tennis at same time and they are still playing. So its quite normal to compare them and also figure out who is greater between two. If we examine the individual achievement of these two then Federer got clear edge over his arch rival Rafael Nadal. Federer started his professional career in 1999 and won his first grand slam in 2003.  Rafael Nadal started his professional career in 2001 and won his first grand slam in 2005. Federer aged 31 expected to retire soon while, Nadal aged 27  have all the chance in world to get closer to the Swiss legend’s 17 grand slam records.

Rafael Nadal

                        Observing these stats and numbers the question arises who is better in these two? To find out the better of these two, I have compared their individual matches leaving apart rest of the things. Comparison of two greats is never an easy task but as they have played at the same time, so it gets little easier in this case. They have faced each other 30 times in their career. Their head to head win-loss record is

Head to Head

                           Matches                      Nadal Won                  Federer Won                                                             31                                              21                                                 10      

Court Wise  

                           Court                        Nadal  Won                    Federer Won
                             Clay                                  13                                       2

                             Hard                                   7                                       6

                             Grass                                  1                                       2        

                     
                        If you look at the head to head record between these two stalwarts, you get to know Nadal has much better record against the Federer. They are even on the Hard court, while clay court is totally dominated by the Nadal and Federer has better record on grass court. But they haven’t played too many matches on that court. So with the record of 20-10 in favor of the Nadal he has clear dominated the Federer.    

 

Head to Head in Finals

                       
                      Total Matches                 Nadal Won                        Federer Won

                               20                                    14                                         6

                        In the finals too Nadal has better record against the Roger Federer. It makes him better than the Federer as there is huge pressure in the finals but he has maintained his cool and won 14 finals out of the 20 meetings. So from the overall study of their matches against each other, no rocket science is needed to declare that Rafael Nadal is better than the Roger Federer in head to head comparison.

                     So in my point of view Nadal is better than the Roger Federer. What do you feel about this ? Do you agree with me ? Who is better in your point of view ?