Rafa wins the US Open!

The King of Clay has extended his domain to the hard courts. Rafael Nadal wins the US Open trophy for this second time in his career, beating Novak Djokovic 6-2, 3-6, 6-4, 6-1. Rafa by the numbers:

• Major title #13. Nadal is now on solo 3rd place in the all-time men's list, behind Federer (17) and Sampras (14)
• Tour-leading 10 titles, reaching the finals in 12 of the 13 tournaments he's played
• 22-0 on hard courts this year. Hard court title count: 1 major, 3 masters. Impressive!
• 60 wins, 3 losses in 2013
• #1 in the ATP Race to London, and will be more than 3000 points ahead of Novak
• First person since Andy Roddick in 2003 to win the Montreal Masters, Cincinnati Masters, and the US Open all in the same year
• First person since Roger Federer in 2007 to win the US Open Series and the US Open, which meant that Nadal takes home $3.6 million in prize money. Wow!!
• Grand Slam title count: 8 on clay court. 3 on hard court, and 2 on grass

photo by Clive Brunskill (Getty Images)

It was a strange (and stressful!) match, with its share of highlights and momentum swings. Rafa was dominant in the first set before Novak found his form in the second set and started playing incredibly well for a set and a half. The third set proved immensely crucial. Rafa was playing catch up mode for most of that set, with Novak up a break early before Nadal leveled things a few games later. The turning point had to have been that ninth game. Djokovic was up 0-40 with three break points. If he won that, he would have served for the set and have gone up 2 sets to 1. Instead, Rafa fought back, went up 5-4, then opportunistically took advantage of the break point he earned in the next game to win the set. Just like that, Novak lost steam and it was all Rafa in the fourth and final set.

This win now means that Nadal has beaten Djokovic six times in their last seven matches. It's a huge turnaround from 2011, when Novak was near-invincible and beat Nadal seven times in a row. Nadal now leads their head-to-head 22-15 and they have split their Grand Slam final meetings 3-3.

*****

On the women's side, Serena won her 17th Grand Slam title, beating Azarenka in straight sets. Serena is head and shoulders above the rest of the women and while she is 31 years old, she is playing as consistently well as she ever has (I'd say she is playing just as well if not better than she did when she dominated in 2002-2003). While Steffi Graf will forever be my favorite player, I wouldn't be surprised if Serena equals or even surpasses Graf's Grand Slam count.

*****

If Rafa Nadal plays enough tournaments for the remainder of the year and does decently well in them, he will almost certainly reclaim the #1 ranking from Novak Djokovic. When the rankings are updated on Monday next week, Rafa will be only 120 points behind Novak and with no points to defend the remainder of the year, the #1 ranking is within reach.