Djokovic outshines Nadal to end 2013 with victory

Rafael Nadal may well have performed a minor miracle to come back from a career-threatening injury and reclaim the world No1 ranking from Novak Djokovic this year but it was the Serb who put the full point on the closing sentence of 2013 with a decisive if less than full-throttle victory on Monday night in the 39th match between the pair.

No two players in the modern era have met more often on a tennis court and, with Andy Murray recuperating from injury and Roger Federer closer to the slopes than the summit of his distinguished reign, this rivalry is the one that matters most for now and the immediate future.

Djokovic took an hour and 36 minutes of edgy tennis that hit few peaks to win 6-3, 6-4 in front of the 16th consecutive full house of the week at the Greenwich venue. Nadal's earlier call for the ATP World Tour Finals, the game's championship of the champions, to be moved to his favoured clay when the London contract expires at the end of 2015 after five successful years will find no favour with either the patrons or the sponsors – and the whisper is it will stay on the banks of the Thames for a little while yet.

As long as it does Nadal will struggle to win it. His only trophy on hard court indoors was in Madrid eight years ago and he is visibly frustrated when unable to take longer building a point, as he does so impressively on the red dirt of Europe. But he got to the London final for the second time – his 14th of the year and fifth on this surface – so he was not exactly a sitting duck.

Djokovic had extra incentive, though. He was riled when Nadal broke his 101-week streak at No1 a month ago in China and, although the 1,500 ranking points he earned here were not enough to dethrone the Spaniard, the $1.9m (£1.19m) he earned for a solid week's work surely eased the pain.


/The Guardian/