World number two Rafael Nadal ended the two-match losing streak to Swede Robin Soderling on Saturday in the final of the Capitala World Tennis Championship, an exhibition tourament held at Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. The Spaniard dispatched the world number eight with the score of 76 75.
Soderling made headlines last year when he ended Nadal’s 31-game winning streak at the French Open last year. The Swede went on to reach the final before losing to Roger Federer. In the season-ending ATP Tour World Finals in London, Soderling once again outplayed Nadal during the round robin stage.
Roger Federer settled for third place after defeating David Ferrer of Spain 61 75.
Nadal said that his main focus for this season is to win as many tournaments as he can. Reclaiming the number one ranking from Federer won’t be his main goal for the season.
“Everybody wants the No. 1 ranking, but, believe me, for me it is not my goal for this year. To play competitively throughout and win as many tournaments as I can, that is my goal. To be happy playing, to be healthy and to play like I have played over the last two days,” Nadal said.
Nadal will take part in next week’s Qatar ExxonMobil Open.
