Toronto
\nRafael Nadal held off a late surge from birthday boy Stefanos Tsitsipas to claim the 80th title of his career with victory at the Toronto Masters on Sunday.<\/p>\n
Nadal overcame a second set fightback from Greek youngster Tsitsipas to claim a 6-2, 7-6 (7\/4) victory in just under 1hr 45mins.<\/p>\n
The win gave the 32-year-old Spaniard a record-extending 33rd trophy at the elite Masters level as well as his 80th title.<\/p>\n
However Nadal later raised doubts about he would be chasing an 81st title at next week\u2019s event in Cincinnati, refusing to confirm that he would play the event as scheduled.<\/p>\n
\u201cWill I play in Cincinnati? I can\u2019t answer to you right now,\u201d Nadal said.<\/p>\n
Earlier, a vocal crowd of local flag-waving Greek fans had sang Happy Birthday to the 20-year-old Tsitsipas as Nadal reflected on a successful campaign.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel I\u2019ve improved every match, it\u2019s important to win even if you\u2019re not at your best,\u201d Nadal said as he prepares for the US Open later this month.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been almost 10 years (2010) since I last played in Toronto,\u201d Nadal said of the event which comes to the city in even-number years as it trades with Montreal.<\/p>\n
The loss concluded the tennis week of his life for Tsitsipas, who beat four Top 10 opponent in a row to reach the final.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been an amazing week for me,\u201d he said. \u201cThis trophy means a lot after playing my first Masters 1000 final.<\/p>\n
\u201cRafa is amazing, he never cracks. He will always grab you like a bulldog and he will always make you suffer on the court.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was normal like all of us, and he managed to become this beast, this monster that he is today.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s how you feel when you play against him.\u201d Tsitsipas is taking the lesson he learned on court to heart: \u201cI\u2019m really hungry for more. I believe I can achieve much more this year.<\/p>\n
\u201cAlthough I lost today, I feel like I can still beat good players. I really want to make more points this year and get the best out of myself.\u201d Nadal added the Canadian honour to the titles he won in 2005, 2008 and 2013.<\/p>\n
The final featured a plot twist at the end, with Nadal broken while serving for victory leading a set and 5-4.<\/p>\n
Tsitsipas would not buckle, making it 5-5 as Nadal hit the net, with the set finally going into a tiebreaker.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Toronto Rafael Nadal held off a late surge from birthday boy Stefanos Tsitsipas to claim the 80th title of his career with victory at the Toronto Masters on Sunday. Nadal overcame a second set fightback from Greek youngster Tsitsipas to claim a 6-2, 7-6 (7\/4) victory in just under 1hr 45mins. The win gave the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":39168,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[122],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-39167","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39167","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39167"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39167\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39169,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39167\/revisions\/39169"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39168"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}