Rafael Nadal returned from a troublesome back injury to win the Rio Open, defeating Alexandr Dolgopolov of Ukraine. The world number one’s victory comes four weeks after he lost the Australian Open final to Stanislas Wawrinka having tweaked his back while warming up.
The Spaniard, who survived two match points in the semi-final against Pablo Andujar, never looked under threat. It was Nadal’s 43rd clay title and stretches his record on the surface to 298-21, the best of the Open era. Dolgopolov hit several exquisite winners, especially from the backhand wing, but struggled to find a consistent enough game to trouble Nadal, who made only a handful of unforced errors in the whole match.
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