Mubadala World Tennis Championship, Rafael Nadal vs Stefanos Tsitsipas final: Preview, where to watch, TV schedule, live stream details and more

The new tennis season could not have got off to a better start with Rafael Nadal and Stefanos Tsitsipas setting up a blockbuster final showdown at the Mubadala World Tennis Championship in Abu Dhabi. Officially not a part of the ATP calendar, the prestigious exhibition tournament has been attracting top tennis stars for quite some time and hence remains a much-awaited event every year.

For Nadal, the International Tennis Centre in Zayed Sports City remains his happy hunting group with the 19-time Grand Slam champion having collected four titles here. For Tsitsipas, the challenge will be to deal with the pressure of expectations after he sealed the biggest title of his young career at the ATP World Tour Finals last month.

However, there was no sign of complacency when the 21-year-old took the court yesterday against the defending champion Novak Djokovic. The Greek star did make a slow start against the Serb and dropped the first set. But he managed to hold his nerves to grind out a gritty 4-6, 7-6, 6-4 win that was so reminiscent of his gruelling win over Dominic Thiem in the ATP World Tour Finals.

Nadal, on his part, was absolutely rock solid and blazed through his encounter with former Paris Masters champion Karen Khachanov, producing a sublime 6-1, 6-3 victory. There was no dip in intensity from the Spaniard's racquet, who simply exhibited a power-hitting masterclass. With such a hassle-free, routine win, the southpaw looks hungry and ready to embark on the new season and try and get that second Australian Open title that has been eluding him for a long time.

In this thrilling battle of youth vs experience, it is the 33-year-old World No. 1 who holds the edge with 5-1 record over the sixth-ranked Tsitsipas. Their last face-off was at the season finale in London where Nadal had to dig deep to ward off his spirited, young opponent. That went on to be the only time Tsitsipas embraced defeat at the season-ending championships this year.

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Can Tsitsipas turn the tables this time? Or will Nadal be able to shatter yet another NextGen talent's dreams to take his fifth title? Whatever the outcome is, the match is poised to be yet another enthralling showdown between the two that will keep tennis fans on the edge.