29 Jan 2012

Nadal expects full-force from Djokovic

9:20 am on 29 January 2012

Attention turns to the men's singles final at the Australian tennis Open tonight, after the Belarussian Victoria Azarenka won her first grand slam tennis title with a 6-3 6-love humiliation of Russia's Maria Sharapova in the women's final.

World number one Novak Djokovic faces number two Rafael Nadal as well as question marks over his fitness - the Serb appeared spent in his last two matches but still summoned up something extra to progress over Auckland champion David Ferrer and Scot world number four Andy Murray.

Nadal doubts there's anything much wrong with Djokovic. The Spaniard says while he looked spent halfway through the Murray match, he looked fine at the end.

And Nadal is also downplaying any talk of an unfair schedule. Djokovic has a day less to recover from Friday night's heroics, but Nadal points to his 2009 Open victory over Federer after having the same situation against him, when he took five sets to see off countryman Fernando Verdasco but was fine by the final.

Nadal thinks the US Open schedule is the unfair one, where the players don't get even a day's break before the final.