MADRID — Rafael Nadal won a record 18th Masters title by beating Roger Federer 6-4, 7-6 (5) in the Madrid final on Sunday.
Nadal reversed the result of the 2009 final — the last time the pair had played against each other — to win in Madrid for a second time and move one Masters title ahead of Andre Agassi and two in front of Federer.
In the women’s final, Venus Williams was beaten 6-2, 7-5 by unseeded Aravane Rezai of France.
Nadal, who will return to No. 2 in Monday’s rankings, is 15-0 on clay this season, having also won in Monte Carlo and Rome. He has lost only two sets during that run.
“The most important thing is winning at home; winning in Madrid is a dream. After that, I think about the ranking,” said Nadal. “Against this opponent, it’s always going to be difficult.”
Both players dropped serve early in the first set before the second-seeded Nadal broke decisively to lead 4-3.
In the second set, Nadal claimed a tightly contested tiebreaker after two breaks of serve each.
“I wasn’t able to defend my title here today but I thought Rafa played an incredible clay-court season,” said Federer. “I’m looking forward to Paris now. I’m happy with my clay-court game.”
Both players struggled to hold serve early on — Nadal broke on his third attempt to go up 2-1, before the top-ranked Swiss broke back.
Nadal, who won in Madrid in 2005, went up 4-3 when Federer sent a backhand into the net after saving four break points.
Federer should have broken in the next game when Nadal’s double-fault took the score to 15-40. Solid serving from the Spaniard kept him in that game and he punched the air in celebration as he went on to take the set with a perfectly judged crosscourt forehand.
With Federer’s forehand misfiring, he hit the net to lose serve at the start of the second set before breaking back immediately.
A crosscourt backhand on the run gave Nadal another opportunity to break at 2-2 and he took it with a passing shot down the line.
Serving at 4-3, Nadal slipped over when retrieving a shot and Federer slotted the ball away for 0-30. The Swiss created a break chance with an audacious drop shot and broke to stay in the match when Nadal hit the ball long.
Nadal brought the Manolo Santana Stadium to its feet when he held serve for 5-5 by ending a fierce baseline rally with a crosscourt dropshot.
In the tiebreaker, a Federer backhand into the net gave Nadal two match points on his own serve and the Swiss saved the first with a stinging forehand winner before mis-hitting on the second to hand his rival the title.
Rezai rallied from two breaks down in the second set to win her third career title in her sixth final.
The French player was making her second appearance at the Madrid Masters and came in having lost in the first round in Barcelona and the second round in Rome. She ended up dropping only one set throughout the tournament.
“It’s been the best week of my career,” Rezai said. “I played very well and I’m very proud of myself because it was a very tough tournament and there were a lot of players here — everyone was here — so I just believed in myself.”
The fourth-seeded Williams was seeking to win a 10th clay-court title and improve on her 12-1 record on the surface this year. It was the 70th final of her career, and she will rise to No. 2 in the rankings on Monday for the first time since May 2003.
“I probably wasn’t at the highest of my energy today. I felt a little slower than normal, but I tried hard and I feel very good about my game,” Williams said. “Sometimes you run into a player who’s red hot; they hit every shot, they don’t miss — and credit to them.”
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