Spanish world No. 1 Rafael Nadal rallied for a narrow 6-7 , 7-5, 7-6 victory over Greece’s Stefanos Tsitsipas in the final of the Mubadala World Tennis Championship, an exhibition event in the UAE capital.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The match between two players, who will be among the shortlist of favourites at next month’s Australian Open, fully lived up to the expectations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The second set nearly came down to a tiebreaker as well, but Nadal won six out of eight games to capture the second set 7-5 and take a 4-2 lead in the decider.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The world No. 6 showed his return-game prowess in breaking back to even the set, although the 19-time Grand Slam champion finally pulled away in the match-deciding tiebreaker to capture a record fifth Abu Dhabi title.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The 21-year-old Tsitsipas, who looks set to challenge the dominance of Nadal, Serbia’s Novak Djokovic and Switzerland’s Roger Federer in 2020, was not done yet though.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was the second straight down-to-the wire contest between Tsitsipas and Nadal, who edged the rising Greek star 6-7 , 6-4, 7-5 last month in the round-robin phase of the ATP Finals, men’s tennis’ elite, eight-man, season-ending tournament.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Tsitsipas went on to win that event the biggest title of his career thus far by defeating Federer in straight sets in the semifinals and Austria’s Dominic Thiem in three sets in the final.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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