Rafael Nadal and Viktor Troicki met for the title at the Stuttgart Open.
In 2014, Rafael Nadal played only three tournaments after Wimbledon due to injury and illness. Upon his return in 2015, signs of rust and inconsistency were evident as he only emerged triumphant at one tournament in the first half of the year and at one point, fell out of the top five for the first time in a decade. He also had his five-year winning streak at the French Open stopped in the quarterfinals by Novak Djokovic.
Facing an earlier start to the grass-court season than usual, Nadal entered the Mercedes Cup in Stuttgart, Germany. A staple of the post-French Open clay-court stretch, the tournament made its switch to grass this year. Nadal, a two-time champ on the dirt, reached the final—his first on grass in four years.
His opponent in the championship match would be Viktor Troicki, the number-eight seed. After returning to the game the year prior from a ban for failing to provide a blood sample, the Serb went on a tear, which included winning his second career title in January 2015. In the Stuttgart semifinals, he defeated the second seed and world No. 10 Marin Cilic to reach his second final of the year.
Entering the match, Nadal carried a 4-0 record against Troicki, with their most recent encounter happening in the 2010 Tokyo semifinals, where Nadal squeaked by in a third-set tiebreak.
Here on the sleek grass courts, both players were engaged in a serving battle throughout the first set with neither player able to break. The opener eventually went to a tiebreak, which Nadal won 7-3.
In the second, it looked like it would be more of the same as the two exchanged holds through the first three games. In the fourth, Nadal finally earned a break point and capitalized to take a 3-1 lead. Consolidating the break, the world No. 7 maintained his advantage and up 5-3, converted on his third match point to win his second title of 2015 and first on grass since Wimbledon 2010.
1
Out of Troicki’s seven career singles finals to this point, this was the first played on a surface other than hard courts.
3
When he won Wimbledon in 2010, Nadal became the third man in the Open Era to win two of his first three grass-court titles at the prestigious event, following Boris Becker and Pete Sampras.
'04
The Stuttgart title brought a halt to Nadal's title drought for the year. Arguably the greatest clay-court player of all time, the Spaniard didn't win at least one of the Masters events on clay for the first time since 2004.
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