TENNIS:RAFAEL NADAL won the Capitala World Championships with a 7-6, 7-5 victory over Sweden's Robin Soderling in Abu Dhabi on Saturday.
Nadal took revenge for his loss to Soderling in the French Open last year in a hard-fought final. The Spaniard won the first set in a tie-break and Soderling continued to put up a tough fight in the second as he came from 4-2 down to tie it at 4-4.
Soderling held serve to survive a first time but not the second as Nadal wore down his resistance to begin 2010 with a title.
Earlier, Roger Federer bounced back from the disappointment of losing to Soderling on Friday to dispatch David Ferrer 6-1, 7-5 and claim third place in the tournament.
Federer looked inspired in the first set and although Ferrer rallied in the second, he still could not match the Swiss.
Nadal, who also lost to Soderling at the ATP World Tour Finals in London in November, had an ominous warning for his rivals after picking up the first silverware of the new season.
“I’m very happy, I played a very good match,” said the world number two.
“I think Robin right now is one of the most difficult players on the tour to play against.
“This is a very important win for me. I’m playing my best ever on court, probably since Roland Garros last year.
“I’ve worked very hard and it’s nice to start the season like I did. If I still play at this level, I think I have the chance to do good things.”
Meanwhile, Alicia Molik set up a second-round meeting with Kim Clijsters by beating Ekaterina Makarova in the first round of the Brisbane International yesterday.
Playing her first WTA Tour event since retiring from the sport in 2008, Molik overcame a second-set blip to defeat Russian Makarova 6-4, 1-6, 6-4.
She will now face top-seed Clijsters in the second round after the Belgian star crushed Italian Tathiana Garbin 6-2, 6-1 in under an hour.
The US Open champion broke her opponent five times and was far too good despite serving five double faults.
Eighth seed Iveta Benesova was the biggest name to fall on the opening day of competition, going down to Andrea Petkovic.
The Czech took the first set, but from then on the German took control and closed out the match 6-7 (8/10), 6-2, 6-1.
In other first-round action, American Vania King saw off Austrian Sybille Bammer 6-4, 6-1, Czech Barbora Zahlavova Strycov overcame Belarusian Olga Govortsova 6-4, 6-1, and Melinda Czink of Hungary beat Czech Lucie Hradecka 6-4, 3-6, 6-3.
All the men’s first-round matches were postponed until today due to rain in the morning.
