Federer beats Nadal to win China Open
Roger Federer extended his winning streak over Rafael Nadal this year to four matches after beating the top-ranked Spaniard 6-4, 6-3 to win the Shanghai Masters on Sunday.
The 19-time Grand Slam winner, who still trails Nadal 23-15 in their overall head-to-head series, didn’t face a break point and started and ended the match with service breaks.
“I don’t know what my expectations were going in,” Federer said. “I thought I might struggle early on because it was a late finish last night.
“I had no nerves before the match, surprisingly. I think I was pretty clear about how I wanted to play the match. I started off very well and relaxed from then on.”
Despite his dominance in 2017, Federer doesn’t rate his chances of catching Nadal in their head-to-head record.
“It’s not going to happen. We don’t have enough years left on the tour,” Federer said. “We ranked too good so we play each other only in finals at the moment. … You can’t win them all against Rafa, to be honest. He’s too good of a player.”
Federer took advantage of three of seven break-point opportunities to snap Nadal’s 16-match winning streak, which included his China Open victory last week.
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