Rafael Nadal vs Alexander Zverev: 3 reasons why Nadal won the Davis Cup rubber comfortably

World No. 1 Rafael Nadal faced off against World No. 4 Alexander Zverev in a crucial Davis Cup tie today. Had Nadal lost the rubber, Spain would have been eliminated.

The Spaniard put on a dominant display in front of his home fans and set a marker for the upcoming clay season.

Here are three reasons why he was able to win easily:

#3 Too many unforced errors from Alexander Zverev

Alexander Zverev

Alexander Zverev started the match poorly and was immediately punished by Nadal who broke the German in his first service game. With Zverev's backhand not hitting the right spots, he was taken to the cleaners in the first set by a rampaging Nadal.

The second set started similarly to the first with Nadal wresting control by breaking the German. After a brief altercation over a line call which pumped Zverev up, he broke Nadal's serve only to be broken again in the fifth game of the second set. Nadal, who was standing deep, negated the powerful serve of Zverev and put pressure on his service games which helped him build a two-set lead.

This was also seen in the third set and the German was again broken by Nadal whose shot selection was of the highest quality. In total, Nadal was able to break Zverev's serve six times in the two hours and 16 minutes match. The German had a poor outing with 57 unforced errors and in no way looked like he was going to upset the King of Clay.

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