Rome 2012: Nadal Restores Order With Win

Defying my prediction, Rafael Nadal restored order to the top of men's tennis today with a 7-5 6-3 win over World #1 (and defending champion) Novak Djokovic to win his 6th Italian Open title and reclaim the World #2 position from his arch-nemesis Roger Federer a mere 6 days before the start of the 2nd major of the year in Paris.

It was the 32nd meeting between Djokovic and Nadal and with his win Nadal improved his career head-to-head record to 18-14 and vaulted to the top of the record books with 21 ATP Masters series titles (1 ahead of Federer's 20). The BNL Internazionale d'Italia title was Nadal's 49th ATP tour title (35th on clay).