Nadal defeated Gael Monfils in three sets on Sunday as both players look to hit top form with the start of the 2016 French Open about a month away.
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“This is a great victory for me and a very emotional one”.
In Monte-Carlo, though, as No1 pair in the ATP rankings race, they were up against the hot team of the moment, the No2 duo who had just won two of the biggest Masters back-to-back, in Indian Wells and Miami.
So for Murray, the wait for a Masters title continues, but this was a popular victory for a very popular French duo, the first French winners here for 30 years.
Nadal, who’s on course to his ninth title at Monte Carlo, breezed off Switzerland’s Stan Wawrinka 6-1, 6-4, breaking Wawrinka’s serve four times and conceding only one break point to reach his 11th Monte Carlo semi-final.
Murray had dominated on his serve – and pressured Nadal’s – throughout the first set, using his drop shot effectively.
“I’ve been given a tough route and, moreover, I am coming back from injury”, said Fognini.
Is Rafael Nadal headed to a ninth title at the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters, or can Gael Monfils overcome his poor record in finals to spoil the (re-)coronation of Rafa as King of Clay on Sunday?
“Now I have three tournaments on clay that are important to me, two straight at home, in Barcelona and Madrid, then Rome. The nerves that I had, I was anxious in the matches”.
Nadal’s performance this week will serve as a warning that he should not be under-estimated at this year’s French Open which begins on the 16th of May. Monfils’s only chance against Nadal is to play relentlessly aggressive and refuse to follow his natural inclination to retreat behind the baseline and retrieve, and that’s something that works much much better on faster surfaces.
Even in the third round against Austrian Dominic Thiem, Nadal faced 17 break points, saving 15, and he won only 29 percent of points on his second serve against Monfils – including a dismal 17 percent in the second set. There was little between them in profligacy or stubbornness under pressure, Nadal saving eight of 13 (62%), Monfils 13 of 21 (also 62%).
If it appeared Nadal had worn his opponent down for good, Monfils was having none of it.
Playing in his 100th final, Nadal clinched his 68th title and his first since winning on clay at Hamburg last Augusta.
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“I simply couldn’t find an answer”, he said.
