Nadal crowns brilliant year with US Open title

2013-09-10 09:01

By (Agencies/chinadaily.com.cn)

Nadal crowns brilliant year with US Open title

Novak Djokovic of Serbia serves to Rafael Nadal of Spain during their men's final match at the US Open tennis championships in New York, Sept 9, 2013. [Photo/Agencies]

Turning point

Djokovic made it three breaks in a row against the formidable Nadal in the opening game of the third set, setting the Spaniard down at love.

Nadal leveled the set in the sixth game, foiling the Serb's serve to make it 3-3.

The match might have turned three games later.

Facing triple break point at 0-40, the Spaniard fought back ferociously, scrambling for every ball to thwart Djokovic, snuffing out the third break point with his first ace of the match on a 125-mph bullet and held after the second deuce.

That seemed to take some of the fight out of the Serb, who was broken in the next game when Nadal blasted a forehand winner up the line to move one set from victory.

"It's all my fault," said Djokovic. "I made some unforced errors in the crucial moments with forehands and dropped the serve twice when I should not have.

"Then he started playing much, much better after that, and I obviously could not recover."

Sensing victory, Nadal was not to be denied.

The Spaniard broke the 26-year-old Serb with a booming forehand to take a 2-0 lead, and with Djokovic wilting against Nadal's powerful groundstrokes the world number two broke him again to make it 5-1 before serving out the victory.

Women's singles title: Serena Williams, United States, world No 1