Rafael Nadal, who not so long ago was dominating the men’s tour, is still without a title for more than eight months after an astonishing defeat in the final of the Qatar Open on Saturday.
Nadal failed to convert two second set match points in a 0-6, 7-6 (10/8), 6-4 loss to Nikolay Davydenko — known as “Mr Invisible” — which will once again raise the question whether he has the confidence to fight his way back to the pinnacle.
Little more than a week before he begins the defense of his Australian Open title, Nadal also let slip a 3-1 final set lead, and retreated into more defensive and containing patterns which contributed significantly to Davydenko’s revival.
PHOTO: REUTERS
“Maybe I needed to be a bit more calm,” Nadal said about the second match point which got away. “But probably that’s because I have not won a tournament for so many months.”
“In this tournament I came back to play my best tennis for a long time,” Nadal said. “Anyway I lost today [Saturday]. He played unbelievable tennis — he was just better.”
For three-quarters of an hour this had looked impossible.
During that phase the Russian began uncertainly, Nadal imposed a flatter-hitting, earlier-taken, more enterprising attack which he had been employing previously this week, and had romped through seven games without reply.
When Davydenko began to play more as he had against Roger Federer in the semi-finals, taking the initiative wherever possible, hitting stridently and if necessary finishing the rally in the forecourt, Nadal fought back aggressively from 3-5 down, and looked odds on to close the match out in the tie-break.
On one of his match points, at 6-5, Davydenko played just too well, but on the second, at 8-7, Nadal earned himself a relatively pressure-free hit on the forehand from inside the baseline — and unaccountably put it into the net.
Once he had also let slip an early break of serve in the final set, Nadal’s lack of confidence, born from injury, a long sequence without a title, and doubts about his future, began to reveal itself. He retreated more often into what he knew best — the style in which he contains his opponent’s attacks from behind the baseline, relying on mobility, tenacity, and change-of-paced winners from counter-hitting positions.
But on hard courts that can be a risky ploy against so fine a striker of the ball as Davydenko, who had the ability to fashion quick winners from either wing and to apply a finishing volley when required.
By the second half of the final set he was more often dominating the rallies and after two hours and 43 minutes of battling it no longer seemed a surprise when his turn-around was complete.
“I was just fighting. I never thought about winning. I didn’t think I could win,” Davydenko said, though this seemed more like his professional psychology for taking each point as it came along. “For every point I was fighting. And at the end it was just amazing.”
It made the man who has become known as Mr Invisible for having so low a public profile only the second player to beat both Federer and Nadal in the same tournament twice — the other is David Nalbandian of Argentina.
■BRISBANE INTERNATIONAL
AFP, BRISBANE, AUSTRALIA
Andy Roddick held off a magnificent fightback from Radek Stepanek to claim a thrilling 7-6 (7/2), 7-6 (9/7) victory in the final of the Brisbane International yesterday.
Stepanek saved six match points in the second set tiebreak but couldn’t save a seventh and when he served a double fault at 7-8, Roddick claimed the first title of the year.
Roddick seemed to be headed for a straightforward victory when he won the first set and led 5-1 in the second but Stepanek stormed back.
The Czech won five straight games to lead 6-5 but once the set went to 6-6, tiebreak specialist Roddick had the advantage.
The American raced to a 6-1 lead before Stepanek came again, winning the next five points to make it 6-6.
However, the huge effort on a stiflingly hot Brisbane day seemed to take its toll on the Czech as his tired looking second serve sailed just over the service line.
Roddick’s win put an end to Stepanek’s nine match winning streak in Brisbane, which included taking the inaugural title at the Queensland Tennis Centre last year.
The first set was a fascinating battle between the raw power of Roddick and the crafty play from Stepanek, who put the world No. 7 under real pressure from the first game.
Stepanek had break points in the seventh and 11th games but was unable to convert them and he was made to pay as the huge serving Roddick took control of the tiebreak from the first point.
Roddick came out firing at the start of the second set as he broke Stepanek in the opening game and broke again two games later to open up a 4-0 lead.
Stepanek refused to give in and he began to play some superb tennis, moving Roddick all over the court, bringing him forward with drop shots then lobbing him when he was stranded at the net.
But despite losing his big advantage in the second set, Roddick showed admirable fighting spirit to hang on and take it into a tiebreak.
■CHENNAI OPEN
AFP, CHENNAI, INDIA
Defending champ Marin Cilic continued his winning streak against Janko Tipsarevic to enter the final of the Chennai Open on Saturday.
The Croatian triumphed 6-1, 6-3 to record his fourth successive win against the Serbian.
The second-seeded Cilic was due to take on third seed Stanislas Wawrinka of Switzerland in yesterday’s final.
Wawrinka fought off a tough challenge from Dudi Sela of Israel before winning the baseline slugfest 6-4, 2-6, 7-5.
Cilic ran away with the first set in just 27 minutes after the Serb failed to hold his serve even once.
Tipsarevic was broken again in the first game of the second set, allowing Cilic to dominate.
Wawrinka broke Sela in the 10th game to wrap up the first set in 51 minutes.
Sela hit back by breaking Wawrinka in the third and seventh games of the second set which he won easily in 39 minutes to level.
Both players traded a break each early in the decider before Sela faltered with his serve in the 12th game to hand Wawrinka victory.
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