Nadal leads Spain into ATP Cup final vs. Djokovic’s Serbia

Rafael Nadal was coming off a really late night, and he was determined to finish work before midnight on the eve of the inaugural ATP Cup final against Serbia in Sydney.

After more than 20 tight games against 20-year-old Alex de Minaur’s relentless attack, Nadal converted his first service break to clinch the second set and then it was all one-way in a 4-6, 7-5, 6-1 win as he secured Spain’s semifinal win against host Australia on Saturday night.

Top-ranked Nadal and his Spanish team will face No. 2-ranked Novak Djokovic’s Serbian team on Sunday night for the first title in the new 24-team international tournament. Djokovic beat Daniil Medvedev 6-1, 5-7, 6-4 to secure Serbia’s win over Russia in the first of the semifinals.

Nadal said it’s been a difficult few days for Spain. The Davis Cup champions played the group stage in Perth and had a transcontinental trip to Sydney for the playoffs. Nadal led Spain to the Davis Cup title at Madrid last November and is aiming to make it back-to-back triumphs in international team events.

He didn’t want any repeats of the quarterfinals the previous night, when he lost to David Goffin — just his second loss in a singles match since a semifinal defeat to Roger Federer at Wimbledon — and then didn’t win the deciding doubles encounter against Belgium until after 1 a.m. in a match tiebreaker.

So Nadal basically finished a quarterfinal and a semifinal on the same date. He didn’t get to bed until 5:30 a.m., and wasn’t happy about the scheduling.

“Yeah, has been a tough couple of days, especially for Team Spain … with jet lag to make things even a little bit more difficult,” Nadal said. “But here we are. Has been important day for us.”

Nadal hasn’t lost back-to-back singles matches since 2016.

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