Novak Djokovic
Wow. Novak Djokovic produced an exceptional performance to defeat Rafael Nadal in the final of Miami, 6-3 6-3 and complete the rare and impressive Indian Wells – Miami double. This felt like one of the quickest matches in the Nadal-Djokovic rivalry lasting just 1 hour and 23 minutes as Djokovic saved the one break point he faced in the first game of the match. Djokovic was fantastic throughout the entire match and just did everything well. He served great although the biggest weakness of Nadal’s game was certainly his return, particularly on the forehand side. The Serb was really aggressive, most evidently on return where he was arrowing backhands and was able to gain the upper momentum in many of the rallies.
By quite some distance, this was Djokovic’s best performance of the year. Despite winning in Indian Wells, there was an overwhelming sense that he didn’t play that well throughout the tournament. He raised his level in the final against Roger Federer, but still had a few jitters getting across the finish line. Winning Indian Wells should have given Novak a great deal of confidence considering it was a Grand Slam level field and today indicated that it may well have done just that. I try not to go too overboard with praise based on one match, but March has been a really excellent month for Novak, especially after an indifferent start to the season based on his ridiculously high standards.
At 6-4 3-1 up and 40-30 on Nadal’s serve, Djokovic had a virtual match point. It felt like it may be a turning point as Djokovic had the chance to zone a forehand. He hit it straight down the middle allowing Nadal to hit a winner. However Djokovic was completely on his game today and finished the match in style. The match point was sensational. You could tell how amazing it was with the amount of people who leapt out of their seats when Djokovic dinked a shot back into the open court to claim the title. Going into the clay court season, Djokovic will have renewed confidence and Nadal knows that he has plenty to work on. It is fair to say that the Spaniard hasn’t been able to produce his best tennis since winning the US Open last year. This was a signficant marker laid down by Djokovic and will only help but raise the intrigue for the clay court season. Monte-Carlo starts in two weeks!
Moo's Tennis Blog 
The truth of the matter is that Nadal dreads playing Djokovic on the ATP tour. He prefers meeting Djoker in G.Slams to preserve the diminishing H:H advantage he still enjoys.I’d bet my last dollars that had Nishikori played and lost to Djokovic, Nadal would have ‘deliberately’ lost to Berdych – just to avoid meeting the Djoker and preserve the H:H as much as possible. He did it in the Shangai and Beijing open losing cheaply to Delpotro and David Ferrer in order to avoid Djokovic who he still lost to at the Year End Finals. If he had met Djokovic at these tournaments, by now the H:H would have reduced to 22:20! This is what the smart Alec called Nadal dreads so much. The truth is that Nadal and his team are really yet to find a lasting solution to the Djokovic challenge.
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