Rafael Nadal makes Abu Dhabi history with Tsitsipas ready for 2020 fight

An epic win in the final gave Rafael Nadal a record at the Mubadala World Tennis Championship, but Stefanos Tsitsipas made the Spaniard work hard for it.

Rafael Nadal continued his impressive run of results to remain tennis’ in-form man, but only after Stefanos Tsitsipas had pushed him until the bitter end in the final of the Mubadala World Tennis Championship.

World number one Nadal made history with a record fifth World Tennis Championship title at the lucrative exhibition event in Abu Dhabi.

Nadal defeated Tsitsipas 6-7 (3-7) 7-5 7-6 (7-3) in a gruelling match that lasted for over three hours on Saturday.

The contest could easily have gone either way. In the first set which Tsitsipas won, Nadal was a break ahead at 5-4 and serving for the opener.

In the second set, it was the Greek’s turn to rue missed chances as he squandered break points at 4-4 shortly before his opponent claimed an up-and-down 12th game to level the match.

Nadal was in the ascendancy at 4-2 up in the decider until Tsitsipas broke back with the championship ultimately settled by another breaker, with the Spaniard this time coming out on top.

After a fine finish to the 2019 season that saw him win the US Open and inspire Spain to Davis Cup glory on home soil, Nadal has kept up the momentum ahead of 2020 in his 10th appearance at the Mubadala World Tennis Championship.

This narrow win over Tsitsipas came after a semifinal display against Karen Khachanov which the Russian described as “a masterclass” and jokingly asked how much he owed Nadal for the lesson, per AFP.

Rafael Nadal had talked about not getting much of a break since the Davis Cup, but emerged with two impressive wins and a fifth World Tennis Championship. In the trophy presentation, he suggested he would continue to return to Abu Dhabi.

"“It’s a real pleasure to come here and to win a fifth title means a lot to me,” he said. “I had a great match yesterday and a great match today.“Hopefully I can stay healthy and hopefully I will be back next year. The crowds have been amazing.“I came 10 times, why not 11? Honestly you never know. I’m always one year older every time, but hopefully I will be back. It’s a tournament I like so much and I always have great feelings here.“I was a little bit surprised the way that I played. I have been playing well at the end of the season and it was just 15 days ago, a little bit more that I was winning the Davis Cup with Spain with the rest of the guys, so things went quick.“And at some point it’s negative that we didn’t have a lot of time [between seasons] but on the other hand I finished playing well and that helps to keep going playing well.”"

Tsitsipas has been in the spotlight this week, starting by declaring his ambition to break up the big three of Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer over the coming year.

He beat Andrey Rublev in the quarterfinal, claimed the scalp of Djokovic in the semifinal and then pushed Nadal all the way in the final, so he has made a good start in his bid to back up his statements.

The matches here were competitive and while some will point to them taking place in an exhibition, once combined with his displays in winning the ATP FInals to end 2019, the signs suggest he is set to be right in the mix for 2020.

Marcos Baghdatis has been one of a host of tennis figures to tip him for future Grand Slam success.

When they were asked about Tsitsipas’ bold top-three goal for 2020 by reporters after Tsitsipas’ win over Djokovic, the Serbian and Nadal both agreed the 21-year-old appeared to have the game and the mindset to make the jump.

But they each also warned him it was an extremely difficult task to produce results that were consistent enough over a full year while remaining injury-free.

Speaking after his loss to Nadal, Tsitsipas said on court he was pleased with how his week had gone.

"“I’ve never played an exhibition so long, or maybe even any match, so I’m happy I gave it my all out there,” he said.“We got electric support from the fans here. It’s been a great couple of days, I enjoyed it a lot, and I’m really grateful to have the opportunity to be here.“Congrats to Rafa, it’s a great way for him to end the year. We put on some great entertainment with high-quality tennis.”"

Prior to the final, Djokovic bounced back from his loss to Tsitsipas and defeated Khachanov in straight sets to finish the tournament in third place.

Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, Stefanos Tsitsipas and Karen Khachanov will all be playing at the ATP Cup to start the 2020 season in under two weeks’ time, with the Australian Open also on the horizon.

Tsitsipas will bid to continue making an impact, as he has done this week, while defending Australian Open champion Djokovic will be on alert with Nadal’s remarkable stint showing no signs of slowing down.