Rafa Nadal has won his first grasscourt tournament since Wimbledon 2010 with a 7-6 6-3 win over Victor Troicki in the Mercedes Cup final.
Neither player was able to make much headway against the other in the opening set. Troicki’s serving was almost untouchable – indeed, he lost just four points on his first serve in the entire match – and Nadal failed to earn a single break point in the opening set, though he did save one on his own serve against the eighth seed.
In the tie-break, however, the Spanish top seed turned on the style, dropping just three points as he took hold of the match.
The second set followed a similar pattern, with just one break point opportunity. That was all Nadal needed: he pounced and then served out the match.
The win will be a big confidence boost for Nadal ahead of this year’s Wimbledon, having dropped to 10th in the ATP rankings after a difficult year with only a single title win prior to this.
Nadal has won the Stuttgart title twice before, in 2005 and 2007, when the tournament was held on clay.