US Open 2011: Novak Djokovic eases past Nadal to win US Open 2011

It was expected to be a tough, hard-fought final but in the end, the world number one Novak Djokovic did not break into much of a sweat as he beat Rafael Nadal to win the US Open.

There was a brief period of fight from Nadal in the third set when he recovered from a break of serve to take the set into a tie-break and winning it 7-6, but Djokovic ran home winner in the fourth 6-1 to take the match and the championship.

The match lasted little over four hours, to allow Njokovic to get to 64-2 in his win-loss record. In the process, Djokovic became only the fifth player in the Open era to win three Grand Slam titles in a single year.

It was to be a match between the top ranked and the second ranked player in the tennis world – the first such match-up in 15 years – but Djokovic proved to be quite a handful for reigning champion.

It was an exciting start to the match, as Nadal broke Djokovic very early to take a 2-0 lead. However, Djokovic not only broke back to level the set, but also went on to achieve his second break of serve and push the Spaniard to the back-foot. Incidentally, after the first two games that went Nadal’s way, Djokovic went on to claim six games in a row to clinch the first set. Nadal looked suitably lost.

The second set went in a similar direction as the first. Nadal broke Djokovic once again early, but lost two successive serves to go down a break of serve. Nadal did break back but in a flurry of broken serves, lost his service game once again to allow the top-ranked player to serve out the set. Dkokovic had taken a two sets to nothing lead.

Only a couple of days ago, Djokovic had been down two sets against Roger Federer but came back strongly to take home the remaining three and the place in the final. Nadal would have been looking to take a leaf out of that book, when he took the third set to a tie-breaker. He was clearly the better of the two players in it and went on to clinch it 7-3 after taking an early 6-1 lead.

Incidentally, the players exchanged six breaks of serve in this set as the long haul at New York and the hot temperatures began to have effect on their game.

Djokovic received some treatment for his back strain but did not exhibit any after-effects of the back problem in the fourth set as he broke Nadal twice. He had two match points and converted the second one before falling down on the court, in a heap of elation.

Nadal, with this defeat lost his sixth successive final to Djokovic this year and admitted that it was probably difficult to repeat what his Serbian had done this year. He said, “Well obviously I am disappointed no? This guy is doing unbelievable things, what you have done this year is probably impossible to repeat. I try my best in every moment, these kinds of matches are very difficult, it brings your body to the limit.”

Djokovic said, “It’s an incredible feeling, I had an amazing year and it keeps going.”