Dominant Nadal cruises to Mexican title
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E-mail Shanghai Daily, March 4, 2013
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A dominant Rafael Nadal has dismantled his Spanish compatriot David Ferrer 6-0, 6-2 to win his second Mexican Open title. |
Rafael Nadal crushed top seed and defending champion David Ferrer 6-0, 6-2 in Saturday's final of the Mexican Open in Acapulco in a powerful performance indicating he has quickly returned to near his best after a long-term knee injury.
Ferrer was a three-time defending champion and had won 19 straight matches in this event, but he could find no answer to Nadal, losing to his Spanish compatriot in just one hour and five minutes.
Nadal surprised himself with the one-sided victory.
"I did not do anything wrong today, I had a great match, almost perfect," Nadal said. "I would have never imagined playing at the level that I played today, I'm leaving happy and surprised.
"I played a great match against one of the top players in the world, a specialist in clay who did not look like himself out there, he had a bad day."
The women's final was similarly one-sided with Italy's Sara Errani beating Carla Suarez-Navarro of Spain 6-0, 6-4.
Nadal missed seven months with a left knee injury before making his comeback.
He has played three tournaments: making the final but surprisingly losing to Horacio Zeballos in Chile, taking the Brazil Open by beating David Nalbandian and now cruising past Ferrer for his 38th clay title. Seven of those 38 have been against Ferrer.
Ready for hardcourts
His knee has stood up so well that Nadal is ready to test it on the more jarring hardcourt surface at the upcoming Indian Wells tournament after an exhibition appearance at Madison Square Garden.
"Indian Wells is one of my favorite tournaments and I want to keep competing because the knee is holding up and my heart says that I can do it, and compete is what I want to do now," Nadal said.
In Dubai, Novak Djokovic extended his winning streak to 18 matches to claim a fourth Dubai Championships on Saturday, cementing his status as the world's best player after beating Tomas Berdych 7-5, 6-3 in the final.
The Serb is unbeaten since October, did not drop a set in Dubai and has now won all 13 matches against top-10 opponents since Andy Murray defeated him in last year's US Open final.
That run includes claiming a third straight Australian Open crown and his latest Dubai triumph gives him 36 career singles titles.
"To prevail again, to be the last man standing - it was never going to be an easy final - Tomas is a fantastic player and it could have gone either way," Djokovic said.
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