Rafael Nadal won in Cincinnati for the first time on Sunday, beating US player John Isner 7-6(10-8), 7-6(7-3) for his ninth title of the season and the 26th Masters 1000 title of his career. It was one of the few tournaments the Majorcan player had failed to win until now.
Cincinnati had always been an unhappy hunting ground for Nadal until Sunday, but the win now means Nadal moves back ahead of Andy Murray to the second position in the World rankings behind Novak Djokovic.
The powerful serve and attitude of the American who was cheered on by the home crowd in his attempt to win what would have been the most important title of his career, was not enough to stop the Spaniard. Nadal has yet to lose on a hard court this year having won 15 straight games on that surface and the US Open is the next goal.
With nine titles in eleven finals played, Cincinatti can now be added to wins in Sao Paulo, Acapulco, Indian Wells, Barcelona, Madrid, Roma, the Roland Garros in Paris and Montreal. His two final defeats came in Viña del Mar against the Argentinian Horacio Zeballos and in Monte Carlo to Djokovic, both on hard courts. His fantastic run this year has only been tainted by the first-round defeat at Wimbledon.
Nadal took one hour and 55 minutes to see off Isner, who himself had his chances to win, particularly in the first set when he had three set points all against serve.
Indeed, neither player lost their serve throughout the match and the final was decided over two tiebreaks where the Spaniard's experience and cool head saw him to victory.
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