Nadal returns to his winning ways



ABU DHABI // World No 2 Rafael Nadal sealed his first Capitala World Tennis Championship title with a 7-6 (7-3), 7-5 victory over a determined Robin Soderling last night at Zayed Sports City International Tennis Complex. Spaniard Nadal, who lost last year's final to Andy Murray, was pushed to his limit in a fiercely competitive contest. Soderling showed the kind of form that saw him defeat world No 1 Roger Federer in Friday's semi-final, but this time Nadal held his nerve the better of the two when the pressure was on to just edge it.

In a well-fought opening set, Nadal, who comfortably defeated his compatriot David Ferrer in his own semi-final on Friday, caused his opponent problems with the Swede struggling to return the Spaniard's powerful serves. In the eighth game, Nadal's deliveries saw him tie the match at 4-4 without dropping a point. But the world No 8 was equally as powerful from the baseline and forced a tie-break, despite a late scare in the 11th and two set-points in the 12th.

With the match tied at 5-5 with Soderling serving, Nadal returned a winner from his opponent's seemingly unreachable smash. It was by far the shot of the game and meant that the Australian Open champion had three break-points to take the lead. But, uncharacteristically, the six-time grand slam winner squandered each of them to allow the gutsy Scandinavian back into the match and hold his serve at 6-5.

Nadal knew it was a chance missed and double-faulted soon after to gift Soderling the chance to seal the first set. But again, the opportunity went begging as Nadal fought back from two break-points down to take the game to a tie-break, where he then required six points to finally break Soderling's serve and closed the set out in precisely one hour. The second set saw both players play more aggressively with Soderling approaching the net early in a bid to break the Mallorcan. It was Nadal though who found himself with a break-point in the fourth game, but the French Open finalist's serve was too strong.

Three unforced errors in the sixth game showed the Swede was starting to stutter and Nadal made him pay through a series of cross-court forehands to tire him and take a decisive 4-2 lead. But Soderling instantly bounced back, playing a tremendous backhand down the line followed a by a similar forehand down the other side to show he was not prepared to concede the match just yet. With three break-points, Soderling showed determination and resolve to crucially close out the game and reinstate parity on the scoreboard.

Both players were showing signs of tiredness, but their competitive streaks forced them to battle on and the next three games went with serve. But with Soderling facing a potential sixth tie-break in seven games, Nadal finally outmuscled him to close out the game, and the match, to claim his first title of the new year. @Email:gmeenaghan@thenational.ae

Tree of Hell

Starring: Raed Zeno, Hadi Awada, Dr Mohammad Abdalla

Director: Raed Zeno

Rating: 4/5

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The story in numbers

18

This is how many recognised sects Lebanon is home to, along with about four million citizens

450,000

More than this many Palestinian refugees are registered with UNRWA in Lebanon, with about 45 per cent of them living in the country’s 12 refugee camps

1.5 million

There are just under 1 million Syrian refugees registered with the UN, although the government puts the figure upwards of 1.5m

73

The percentage of stateless people in Lebanon, who are not of Palestinian origin, born to a Lebanese mother, according to a 2012-2013 study by human rights organisation Frontiers Ruwad Association

18,000

The number of marriages recorded between Lebanese women and foreigners between the years 1995 and 2008, according to a 2009 study backed by the UN Development Programme

77,400

The number of people believed to be affected by the current nationality law, according to the 2009 UN study

4,926

This is how many Lebanese-Palestinian households there were in Lebanon in 2016, according to a census by the Lebanese-Palestinian dialogue committee

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Living in...

This article is part of a guide on where to live in the UAE. Our reporters will profile some of the country’s most desirable districts, provide an estimate of rental prices and introduce you to some of the residents who call each area home.

How to protect yourself when air quality drops

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UPI facts

More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
More than 3.5 million Indians reside in UAE
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Director: Laila Abbas

Starring: Yasmine Al Massri, Clara Khoury, Kamel El Basha, Ashraf Barhoum

Rating: 4/5


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