Nadal figures out Soderling in Abu Dhabi exhibition final

cbssports.com | January 5, 2010

ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates -- Rafael Nadal ended a two-match losing streak to Robin Soderling on Saturday, beating the Swede 7-6 (3), 7-5 in the final of the season-opening Capitala exhibition tournament.

Both players held serve throughout the first set before the second-ranked Spaniard won the tiebreaker. Nadal then broke decisively in the sixth game of the second set at Zayed Sports City.

Soderling ended Nadal's 31-game unbeaten run on clay at the French Open last year and beat him again at the season-sending ATP Tour World Finals in London.

Roger Federer defeated David Ferrer of Spain 6-1, 7-5 for third place.

Nadal said overtaking Federer was not his main focus for 2010.

"Everybody wants the No. 1 ranking, but, believe me, for me it is not my goal for this year," the Spaniard said. "To play competitively throughout and win as many tournaments as I can, that is my goal. To be happy playing, to be healthy and to play like I have played over the last two days."

Nadal will play in next week's Qatar Open, the Australian Open beginning Jan. 18 and the ABN AMRO starting Feb. 8 in the Netherlands before taking a break. He injured both knees and his abdomen last season, missing Wimbledon among other tournaments.

"After the end of the season, I didn't stop and practiced for two and a half weeks," Nadal said. "I hope to have good tournaments in Doha, Australia and Rotterdam, and then have three weeks off because I have to rest a little in order to play the American season and play many seasons afterwards."