World No. 1 Rafael Nadal easily dismissed Andy Murray in straight sets on Sunday to capture the BNP Paribas Open and claim the first ATP World Tour Masters tournament of the year.
Winning the final five games of both sets, the 22-year-old Spaniard crushed Murray, 6-1, 6-2 to win his second title at Indian Well, California, in three years. The match lasted just one hour, 20 minutes and was played amid persistent high winds. “The conditions today were really difficult, but I think I have good strategy and I played a really good match with those conditions,” Nadal said after the match, in remarks posted on the ATP Web site. The victory gives Nadal 13 ATP World Tour Masters titles, just one behind Federer and four behind all-time leader Andre Agassi. The final marked Murray’s most lopsided loss since he fell to Marcos Baghdatis by the same score in August 2007, according to the ATP. The 21-year-old Scot, who defeated Roger Federer in the semifinals, was looking to become the first British player to win the BNP Paribas Open title. It was Murray’s first defeat to a top 10 player this year.
