Bedene, Khachanov, Thiem, Dimitrov, Nishikori.
All top players, but none of them even took a set from Rafa.
Talk about clay domination.
“I think I played solid,” said Nadal. “It had been a very hard first set until the 4-all. A lot of tough games. Yes, I made a big mistake at 3-1, I played a very bad game. Then he came back… I really had a lot of chances in the first set. I was little bit lucky he hit two double-faults at 4-5, and one missed with the forehand. That gave me the advantage and then [I played] a good point to finish the first set. In the second, I think he started to miss more. He missed more than usual. I was solid there. That's all.”
This is his 11th Monte Carlo crown with a staggering record of 68-4.
Nadal will start his 171st week at No. 1 in the ATP Rankings on Monday.
On the other hand, Kei Nishikori had this to say about his match-up with the king of clay: "It's not easy to dominate the point with Rafa all the time. I knew it's going to be tough even though I was up a break.
"I was kind of out of gas, especially in the second set. How he plays... He makes every shot. He makes it tough. I think he was also playing great tennis. It was not easy to maintain my level until the end today."
Nadal is still playing really well.
Great player.
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interesting, very interesting!
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