Apologies for the lateness of this preview, but it was a sunny day in the UK, which is an extremely rare occurrence these days so sometimes tennis gets pushed down the pecking order in my life. The semi-finals were as most people called (including me!) with Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic progressing to the Monte-Carlo finals via straight set wins. Nadal was cruising to a comprehensive victory over Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, but found himself pegged back from 6-3 5-1 to 6-3 5-5; however Nadal eventually pulled out the win in the tiebreak to post a 6-3 7-6(3) victory. Djokovic had a cruise as he tore past Fabio Fognini in just 52 minutes, 6-1 6-2. By all accounts, Fognini was jeered off the court, which was pretty harsh for a guy who had one of his best weeks to date.
Nadal and Djokovic have not met since the final of Roland Garros last year and it will no doubt be a fascinating match in Monte-Carlo. Nadal leads the head-to-head by 19 wins to 14; Djokovic dominated all their clashes in 2011, but Nadal won all three in 2012, which took place on the European clay. I have been impressed by Djokovic to make the final here having come into the tournament with that ankle injury. I still don't think it was a wise choice, but he has competed extremely well as always. However I do think Nadal will come out on top and relatively comfortably as well...
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| Final Predicton - Nadal to beat Djokovic in 2 tight sets |
Amazing showdown as always between these two tennis greats.
ReplyDeleteLets hope there will be more to come, especially at this years Roland Garros:)
I recommend this head to head analysis, quite useful...
http://www.stevegtennis.com/2013/04/djokovic-vs-nadal-head-to-head-and-rivalry-key-matches-and-stats/