Doha: World No. 1 Serbain Novak Djokovic was clinical while his ace rival Rafael Nadal was brutal in fashioning their respective second round wins at that the Qatar ExxonMobil Open, here on Wednesday.
Djokovic slowly and steadily opened up the chinks in Spaniard Fernando Verdasco’s armour, like he were a surgeon out to perform an operation with a steady hand. “He could be very dangerous if he gets time to settle down. I didn’t let him do that,” said Djokovic post his 6-2, 6-2 win over the 49th ranked Spaniard.
And Djokovic wasn’t wrong either, for the scores, like pure mathematics seldom reveal the chemistry that goes inside the minds and bodies of the two players when they toil hard for supremacy. No wonder, there isn’t a Noble Prize for excellence in mathematics.
Tennis definitely is a power game, but it also is a mind game that calls for efficient planning. On Wednesday, Djokovic proved to be a better planner, so much so that at more stage than one he forced his opponent to succumb to his violent self, displaying his displeasure with the proceedings with loud gestures.
Djokovic started the attack rather early, depriving Verdasco of any time to reassess. By the time he could settle down, the Spaniard had already lost two serves. Soon Djokovic capitalising on his impressive wins of first serves (10 off 13) and decapitated Verdasco 6-2.
The second set did saw Verdasco come agonisingly close to breaking Djokovic, but on both occasions his never failed him. The Spaniard showing resilience in the seventh game fought for a break, that never came by and soon it was all over for him as Djokovic marched on to Round 3 with ease.
Later, Rafa proved to the audiences that wins can be achieved by aggression alone, provided of course there is enough adrenalin or better put ‘horsepower’ in play.
Robin Hasse, the 66th ranked Dutch was no match to the power-packed performance on display by the ace Spaniard. It was almost as if Rafa had turned into Wolverine of X-Men and the racquet was but an extension of his arm, with reinforced steel.
The way Nadal would turn to ball boys, asking for balls to serve, gave an impression that they were missiles for use during pitched battled. The end result was there for everyone for see six minutes past an hour. Rafa was sitting pretty in Round 3 with a 6-3, 6-2 win.
And even though Haase did hit eight aces in the match and came on to the nets at every possible moment, it was those break points that did him in. He came close to breaking Nadal once, in the first set, but that was as far as he could get and lost the first set 3-6.
Haase fired a good five aces in the second set but failed to hold on to his serves with Nadal breaking him thrice from the five chances he got.
“It was a tough match to win. He is a very aggressive player and then his handy work at the nets literary killed me,” said Rafa, humbled by the weight of victory.
“It’s amazing to play here in Doha.”
In the first match of the day seventh seeded Frenchman Jeremy Chardy brushed aside countryman Paul-Henri Mathieu 6-2, 6-4 to move into the third round.
Results (Day 3)
Singles (Round of 16)
(2) ESP Rafael Nadal bt (NED) Robin Haase 6-3, 6-2
(1) SRB Novak Djokovic bt ESP Fernando Verdasco 6-2, 6-2
(7) FRA Jeremy Chardy bt FRA Paul-Henri Mathieu 6-2, 6-4
UKR Illya Marchenko bt RUS Teymuraz Gabashvili 6-4, 6-2
(8) ARG Leonardo Mayer bt ESP Pablo Andujar 6-2, 6-4
RUS Andrey Kuznetsov bt LTU Ricardas Berankis 7-6(6), 6-1
Doubles (Quarter-finals)
(3) ESP Feliciano Lopez / ESP Marc Lopez bt ITA Simone Bolelli / UKR Sergiy Stakhovsky 6-2, 6-7(3), 10-6
(4) GER Philipp Petzschner / AUT Alexander Peya bt ESP David Marrero / ITA Andreas Seppi 6-2, 6-4
(1) NED Jean-Julien Rojer / ROU Horia Tecau bt RUS Teymuraz Gabashvili / ESP Albert Ramos-Vinolas 6-1, 6-1
(2) GBR Jamie Murray / BRA Bruno Soares bt FRA Jeremy Chardy / FRA Paul-Henri Mathieu 7-6(5), 6-4
