Rafael Nadal of Spain poses with the trophy after winning his men’s singles final match against Novak Djokovic (R) of Serbia at the Rome Masters Tennis Tournament Monday. — Reuters

ROME — Rafa Nadal enjoyed the perfect fillip ahead of his French Open defense by downing world No. 1 Novak Djokovic 7-5, 6-3 in the delayed Rome Masters final Monday.
Beaten surprisingly early on Madrid’s blue clay earlier this month, the 25-year-old Mallorcan has been back to his destructive best on the red dirt at the Foro Italica but saved his most impressive display to last.
Both players refused to budge an inch in a brutal 76-minute opener but Djokovic, who memorably beat Nadal in straight sets in last year’s final, faded and the match ended in anti-climax when he double-faulted to gift Nadal a record sixth Rome title.
Six-time French Open champion Nadal’s victory means he will rise back to second in the world rankings after being overtaken by Roger Federer last week — a significant move ahead of Roland Garros where he will now definitely be in the opposite half of the draw to Djokovic.
The match, the 32nd between the pair, had been postponed by rain Sunday, but both players came out firing in front of a healthy crowd as the sun finally returned.
Nadal went immediately on the attack, carving out two break points in Djokovic’s opening service game only for the elastic-limbed Serb’s defenses to dig him out of trouble.
The Spaniard did draw first blood when he punished a dreadfully disguised Djokovic drop shot in the fifth game to move ahead but he immediately handed the service break back with a lackluster game culminating in a rare forehand error.
Djokovic briefly switched up a gear and began to dominate the rallies, so much so that he seemed poised to take the set when Nadal served to stay in the set.
At 30-30 Djokovic peppered the corners with a series of meaty groundstrokes and had Nadal in trouble before a forehand was wrongly called out and immediately over-ruled by the umpire and the point was replayed. A frustrated Djokovic lost the next two points with errors and he was broken at 5-5 as Nadal prevailed in a scintillating rally with both players in at the net.
Nadal served out with ease to claim the opening set and immediately moved 2-0 up in the second set.
Djokovic hung on grimly, threatening to break back in the fourth game only to mess up an easy smash.
Djokovic suffered with a couple of bad bounces as he served to stay in the match and the deflated 25-year-old double-faulted to end the contest and hand Nadal a 21st Masters Series title to move ahead of the record of 20 he shared with Federer.

Paszek advances
In France, Tamira Paszek overcame a second-set blip to beat Alberta Brianti of Italy 6-4, 0-6, 6-4 in the first round of the Strasbourg International Monday. French pair Pauline Parmentier and Stephanie Foretz Gacon advanced in straight sets and next play each other. Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei rallied to beat Romania’s Irina-Camelia Begu 6-7 (5), 6-3, 6-1. Parmentier beat Sabine Lisicki of Germany 6-4, 6-4 and Foretz Gacon downed Britain’s Elena Baltacha 6-4, 6-0.

Rain washes out play
Heavy rain washed out all play at the Open de Nice clay-court tournament Monday. Because of the delay, 12 first-round matches are scheduled for Tuesday.
On Sunday, only one match was started and later abandoned in the second set with Belgium’s Xavier Malisse leading 7-5, 1-0 against Taiwan’s Lu Yen-hsun. — Agencies