Rafael Nadal showed the world he still has the sharp skills in playing tennis when he was able to defeat Novak Djokovic during the Italian Open. This is Rafael Nadal's 6th Italian Open thus propelling him once again in the second ranking.

Rafael Nadal managed to beat Nojak Djokovic with a score of 7-5, 6-3 last Monday. This is the second win by Nadal against Djokovic. Djokovic was able to beat Nadal for the past seven straight finals. Though both players have shown good playing skills in the Italian Open, both Nadal and Djokovic are stating that they still need to have room for improvement in order to perform better for the French Opening. Nadal commented on his own game stating that ""I don't think I played that well, I can do better. When you are not serving 100-percent perfect then you are in trouble because he returns hard. I am trying to play more aggressive and I am hitting the ball better than last year." Nadal was on a winning streak for the past four years during the Italian Open. His winning streak ended when Djokovic was able to emerge triumphant during last year's Italian Open.

Though the two players are engaged in a heated battle in the tennis court, their feelings towards each other is more of cordial respect. Djokovic express his views about Nadal saying that "He is always the favorite even if I win against him seven times. He is the best player in the world on this surface and the two wins I had gave me confidence and I think that the match today was quite close even if he won in straight sets". Djokovic was able to have a good start but he lost his momentum during the 10th game where a serve done by Djokovic was called as "out". The umpire overruled this decision but Nadal was able to win the replayed point and held his service to make the score a 5-5.

Through this win, Nadal was able to move ahead against Roger Federer in the rankings for the French Open that would start on Sunday. Nadal is back at the number 2 spot in terms of rankings thus making Federer in the number 3 spot.