Novak Djokovic claimed a record 29th Masters title when he defeated Andy Murray 6-2, 3-6, 6-3 on Sunday to win the Madrid crown for a second time.
The world No 1 captured his fifth trophy of 2016 as he defeated defending champion Murray for the 12th time in their last 1ast 13 matches to stand at an overwhelming 23-9 in their career head-to-head.
Djokovic has defeated the world No 2 Scot in all four of their clay-court meetings as he added the 2016 Madrid trophy to the title he earned five years ago in the Spanish capital.
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“Novak has had a lot of wins against me in the past couple of years unfortunately, but he has done some great things and also deserved this win,” Murray said.
“I’ve had a great two years here, and I love it and look forward to coming back for many more years.”
Djokovic dominated the first set but it was even from then until the end, with both players faltering on decisive moments.
Djokovic hit 25 winners but had as many unforced errors, while Murray had 10 aces in the match that lasted 2 hours, 6 minutes at the “Magic Box” centre court in the Spanish capital.
Murray saved a match point in the eighth game of the deciding set and another in the ninth where he also saw the Serb save seven break points.
Djokovic, 28, has now won 33 of the past 35 sets against top 10 opponents – a stretch of 15 matches.
He has also won five of the past six and 10 of the past 14 Masters titles.
The Belgrade native won US$1.04 million (Dh 3.82m), and a victory at Rome next week will make him the first male tennis player to win $100m in prize money.
Murray will fall to third in the world in the new rankings today after failing to defend his title.
In addition to beating home-crowd Nadal in straight sets in last year’s final, Murray had also won the Madrid tournament in 2008, when it wasn’t considered a Masters. He defeated Nadal in the semi-finals on Saturday.
The British player has been impressive this season on clay, the surface which has seen him struggle the most in his career. He was coming off a semi-final loss to Nadal in three sets at the Monte Carlo Masters.
Sunday’s defeat leaves him tied in points with Federer for the No 2 ranking, but behind on the tiebreakers.
Murray is still expected to be considered one of the main favourites at the French Open, which begins in two weeks. He lost to Djokovic in last year’s semi-finals at Roland Garros.
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