Nadal climbs to No.3 after Rogers Cup win

 

Originally published on: 12/08/13 00:00

The Spaniard landed his 25th Masters 1000 title with a 6-2 6-2 victory over home favourite Milos Raonic. It was his third title in Canada having triumphed in Montreal in 2005 and in Toronto in 2008.

After winning his eighth ATP World Tour title of the year, and his fourth Masters 1000 trophy of 2013, Nadal moves back to No.3 in the world rankings.

"To win here, I have to be playing my top level," Nadal said." [I’m] very happy the way that I played almost every match in this tournament. Is very important for me, this title. Just very happy for everything."

Raonic was left to rue a 50 per cent success rate on his first serve, while Nadal hit just seven unforced errors to his opponent’s 22.

"I did a lot of things well," said Nadal. "My return was huge this afternoon. I returned a few first serves of his in important moments, decisive. Then I think he play with more mistakes than usual. That helped me."

Nadal won a thrilling semi-final against two-time defending champion Novak Djokovic 6-4 3-6 7-6(2) on Saturday and closes the gap in the race to end the year as world No.1. However, the Spaniard, who is 48-3 since returning from a seven-month injury layoff in February insists Djokovic remains the favourite to end the season on top.

"I feel I have an advantage, but not enough to say that I am the favourite," he said. "On this kind of surface, Novak is really good. [We have] three Masters 1000s, one Grand Slam, and the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals – more favourable surfaces for him than for me. So we are talking about 6500 points.

"We have to realise how many points I have to win to be No. 1. I think I will not be No. 1 if I have less than 10,000 points at the end of the season. Today I have 8000. I need to win minimum 2000 more. That's very difficult in this part of the season, but I'm going to try."

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