Rafa wins Brazilian Open - first victory in over seven months

SPAIN'S Rafa Nadal has won the Brazilian Open in São Paulo against Argentina's David Nalbandian – his first victory since Roland Garros and only his second tournament since suffering a knee injury at Wimbledon which forced him to pull out of the Olympics.

The Mallorca-born world number five said his knee was still painful at times during the tournament, and the slippery conditions on the court due to wet weather did not help.

He is still not up to dashing from one side of the court to the other in record time, as he has always been famous for, but was playing on top of his form this weekend and had an easy victory against Nalbandian, who is still in the early stages of his career.

The Brazilian Open is Rafa's 51^st victory and his 37^th on clay, where he is reputed to be unbeatable.

After his injury saw him out in the first round at Wimbledon and forced him to scratch from the London Olympics, a long and slow recovery meant he was not seen back on the circuit until a week ago at Chilean Open in Viña del Mar, where he lost in the final round.

Rafa will complete his tour of Latin America when he starts the ATP 500 tournament in Acapulco, México, in a week's time.