Nadal downs Murray to take Indian Wells title
Tennis newsRafael Nadal powered his way to a 6-1, 6-2 victory over Andy Murray on a windy Sunday at the BNP Paribas Open, winning his second Indian Wells title in three years.
The top-ranked Nadals low, hard groundstrokes gave him an edge in the gusty conditions over Murray, whose game relies more on pace and a mix of shots.
Nadal, a 22-year-old Spaniard, added the championship to the Australian Open title he won earlier this year, and avenged a loss to eventual champion Murray in the Rotterdam final.
Vera Zvonareva defeated defending champion Ana Ivanovic 7-6 (5), 6-2 to win the womens title. Zvonareva a day earlier teamed with Victoria Azarenka to take the womens doubles.
Nadal rode his usual powerful forehands to the lopsided win over Murray, hitting 10 winners from that side to Murrays one. Nadal also was efficient at the net, winning eight of 11 points to Murrays 5-of-10.
The conditions today were really difficult. But I think I had a good strategy and played a really good match under these conditions, Nadal said. Probably Andy didnt play his best because of the conditions, but I think I played a really complete match, moving very well.
I never stopped the legs during the match and I think that was the key. Maybe I accepted the conditions a little bit better than him. Maybe I had a little bit more positive attitude than him.
With the swirling wind making the service toss difficult, neither player served an ace.
Maybe I was a little bit more prepared, Nadal said. I tried to play inside the court, go to the net some, move all the time. Its important that you know you dont have to find the lines all the time, but hit the ball inside, not so close to the lines.
Murray said, Rafa dealt with it well. He hit the ball cleaner and just seemed to get himself in better positions than I did. You want to be in the best position possible to hit each ball and I wasnt. Thats why he managed to dictate most of the points.
Zvonareva was the steadier player in the womens title match.
With the gusts making even some routine shots extremely tricky, the 24-year-old Russian made far fewer mistakes than her Serbian opponent.
Zvonareva joined Lindsay Davenport as the only women to win the singles and doubles title at Indian Wells in the same year. Davenport did it twice, in 1997 and 2000.
In the singles final this time, the wind swirled around the stadium, with both players often tossing the ball to serve only to have to catch it and try again.
Serving on the first point of the tiebreaker, Ivanovic tossed the ball up, it went sailing about a meter (yard) behind her, bounced on the court and kept bouncing away, swept off the court by the wind.
Ivanovic finally served and won the point, but a string of errors cost her the rest of the tiebreaker and plagued her in the second set.
Zvonareva, who won her ninth career singles title and second of the year, made 23 unforced errors, half of Ivanovics total. Ivanovic also had five double-fault. Zvonareva had one.
Those mistakes negated Ivanovics winners – she hit 29 to Zvonarevas five.
After a couple of games, I knew that the conditions were very difficult and its not going to probably change and I have to fight for every point, have to adjust my game, Zvonareva said. Even though I had some mistakes and some frustrating points with the wind, I was still trying to put as many balls as I can in the court, try to concentrate.
Ivanovic said the conditions were the worst shes played in.
It wasnt much about the game plan. It was just who can handle the conditions better, and who can stay probably mentally tougher through it, Ivanovic said. Today, she did. Yeah, she played really well.
The victory evened Zvonarevas record against Ivanovic to 4-4.
Ivanovic, the defending French Open champion who had two stints at No. 1 last year, was trying to become only the second woman to repeat as Indian Wells champion. Martina Navratilova won the desert event in 1990-91.
Monday, March 23rd, 2009 at 9:15 pm and is filed under Tennis news. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.
