Madrid silenced as Djokovic denies Nadal to extend run

Djokovic, the world No 2, made it 32 wins out of 32 in 2011 and clinched his sixth successive title of the year after defeating home favourite and defending champion Nadal 7-5 6-4 in two hours and 17 minutes.

That was Djokovic’s first win in 10 meetings with Nadal on clay, while it also brought an end to the Spaniard’s 37-match winning streak on the surface. The victory also means Djokovic’s current winning streak is the second-best to start an ATP season since 1975, with John McEnroe holding the record with 42 successive triumphs in 1984.

The last time the two players met here, in the 2009 semi-finals, it needed over four hours to separate the pair before Nadal recorded a 6-3 7-6 (7/5) 7-6 (11/9) victory, and it was a similarly captivating contest last night – albeit in half the time.

The match was a rollercoaster ride right from the start, with Djokovic having to save two break points in the opening game of the first set. The Serbian managed that, though, and then raced into a 4-0 lead after twice breaking Nadal and holding his other service game to love.

It was looking worrying for Nadal at that stage but, backed by a partisan crowd at La Caja Magica, he pulled a break back in the fifth game, aided by a Djokovic double fault on the decisive point, and then did the same in the ninth game.

The momentum looked to have dramatically shifted to Nadal, but Djokovic recovered and forced three set points on his opponents serve in the next game, the 10th of the set.

Nadal managed to save all of them, but it was to prove only a brief reprieve for the Spaniard as Djokovic won the next eight successive points – including breaking Nadal to love in the 12th game with the help of two fortunate net-cord bounces – to take the first set.

The second set started in similar fashion as the first had ended, with Nadal gaining revenge for the previous game by also breaking Djokovic to love – one of the Spaniard’s winners being a brilliant through-the-legs lob shot that sent the Madrid crowd and even his suitably impressed opponent wild.

Once again, though, Djokovic hit back straight away, breaking Nadal’s serve in the next game to level the scores up at 1-1.

The third game passed with little incident, Djokovic holding to 15, but there was another break point in the fourth, although this time Nadal was able to hold.

There were no more break points until the 10th game of the set, when Djokovic raced into a 15-40 before breaking Nadal to clinch a thrilling victory.

Earlier, Petra Kvitova clinched the women’s title after defeating fourth seed Victoria Azarenka in straight sets in what was the Czech’s first WTA clay court final.

Kvitova she capped a record-breaking week by defeating Azarenka 7-6 (7/3) 6-4 in one hour and 42 minutes.

The win earns Kvitova her third WTA crown of 2011 having also been triumphant in Brisbane and Paris, and continues the 21-year-old`s impressive rise up the world rankings.

The left-handed Kvitova, who was ranked 62 in the world 12 months ago, will break into the top 10 for the first time tomorrow following her success in the Spanish capital.

Although she lost, Azarenka will also break new ground in the rankings as she will become the highest-ranked Belarusian in WTA history having reached the final here, moving up one spot to fourth place.