Abu Dhabi: The Spanish flag was up and flying again on Saturday barely a fortnight after Barcelona created history in the capital. This time it flew for Rafael Nadal, the world's number two tennis player, who won the second edition of the Capitala World Tennis Championship on Saturday.
The Spanish ace beat Robin Soderling of Sweden 7-6 (3), 7-5 to carry away the prize of $250,000 at the end of a two-hour battle.
A fortnight ago, it was Barcelona who won the Fifa Club World Cup in front of over 40,000 fans and the Abu Dhabi Tennis Complex, a few hundred metres away, witnessed the
Real Madrid fan Nadal improved on his runner-up position last year when he lost to Andy Murray.
World No 1 Roger Federer beat Nadal's Davis Cup teammate David Ferrer in the play-off for third place.
"It is great to start off the year with this win," said Nadal, who went from here last year to win the year's first Grand Slam, the Australian Open. "I hope I will do well but this start is very important. I feel like I have started well," said Nadal.
"I am happy the way I feel, in fact it is the best in the last six months. I enjoyed every bit here, coming here to Abu Dhabi for the second time. It has been perfect. Thank you!," Nadal told the crowd after receiving the Capitala Trophy from Mohammad Al Mahmoud, General Secretary of the Abu Dhabi Sports Council.
Both Nadal and Soderling, who beat Federer in the semifinals, were strong on their serves and the first set was decided in the tie-breaker where Nadal showed more consistency.
Tough fight
After breaking each other once in the second set, Soderling survived a match-point when he was serving at 4-5.
Winning that game, the Swede was again pushed to the backfoot, trailing 0-30, before trying to come back with an ace. He, however, lost the next point and match to his superior rival.
Despite his defeat, Soderling said he hoped to continue from where he left off last season. "I have had the best preparation here for the season and I hope I can extend that to the season," said the Swede, who broke into the top 10 after a string of victories late last year.
"This is a great event and nice to see so much of support. Today, Nadal handled the windy conditions very well," he added.
