TIL Desk Sports/ Spanish world No. 1 Rafael Nadal rallied for a narrow 6-7 (3-7), 7-5, 7-6 (7-3) victory over Greece’s Stefanos Tsitsipas in the final of the Mubadala World Tennis Championship, an exhibition event in the UAE capital.
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. Nadal took a service-break lead at 5-4, but faltered when trying to serve out the first set and then lost the tiebreaker on Saturday.
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. 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.
