Nadal Topples Birthday Boy Tsitsipas In Rogers Cup Final

Rafael Nadal and Stefanos Tsitsipas (photo: Rogers Cup)

TORONTO, August 13, 2018

Rafael Nadal has captured his 80th title on the ATP World Tour, lifting the trophy of the Rogers Cup on Sunday. The World No. 1 beat #NextGenATP start Stefanos Tsitsipas, who celebrated his 20th birthday, 6-2, 7-6(4).

Nadal won 94 per cent of his first service points and broke his young opponent three times to secure victory in one hour and 41 minutes.

“If you told me this two weeks ago I would not have believed it,” Nadal told ESPN in his on-court post-match interview. “It’s a great way to start the hard-court season. Winning in Toronto is so important. You don’t win Masters 1000s very often. It’s a very important victory for me and I’m very happy.”

Nadal is the all-time leader in Masters 1000 titles, picking up his 33rd trophy in Toronto. The 32-year-old Spaniard announced that he has withdrawn from next week’s Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati in pursuit of “personally taking care of my body and trying to keep as healthy as I feel now”.

Kontinen/Peers win doubles title

After clinching the trophies at Brisbane and London/Queen’s Club this year, Henri Kontinen and John Peers took the doubles crown earlier in the day, The No. 2 seeds fought past Raven Klaasen of South Africa and Michael Venus from New Zealand 6-2, 6-7(7), 10-6. The final lasted one hour and 25 minutes.

“We try to save the best for last each tournament and try to enjoy it and keep rolling with it,” Peers said.

“Unfortunately, we couldn’t close it in two, but maybe it’s a little sweeter even this way since we almost lost it there,” Kontinen added. “But I think we played great the first two sets and even in the Match Tie-break, so pretty happy with that.”