With Djokovic enjoying family life down the road from the Club after an opening loss, Nadal was back into a remarkable 100th final, his 42nd Masters final, his 56th clay-court final, and his 10th Monte-Carlo final. Nadal blasted a victor from the baseline for the first break to go 3-1 up, and after Monfils returned the favour, the Spaniard gritted his teeth and edged 5-3 ahead against the serve.
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“This is a great victory for me and a very emotional one”.
“I tried to get into my game immediately and put him under pressure”, said Monfils. I’m happy how the body reacted. “Probably Monte-Carlo is one of the most important places in my career without any doubt”, he added.
“I had a tough season last year, but I’ve had better preparation this year – even with a tough start to the season”, Nadal said. Spaniard lost only 4 points on his serve and broke Monfils 3 times for a commanding 6-0, ending the match in completely different way than it was in the first two sets.
But with Djokovic a surprise second-round loser here, Nadal’s toughest opponent was out of the way and, in a contest between two 29-year-olds with differing career trajectories, Monfils was rank outsider here. “The nerves that I had, I was anxious in the matches”.
Second seed Murray appeared on course for his first final at the Masters event but Nadal has good memories of Roquebrune-Cap-Martin and he drew on those positive experiences to win 2-6 6-4 6-2.
But a second change of clothes for Nadal, and some attention to the plaster on his finger, and he began the decider the fresher, held, made a quick break, held again, and so on.
Nadal came in with a 6-1 record against the Scot on clay and he is certainly no stranger to success here as the Spaniard once won eight straight titles, but the last of those came in 2012 and since then, his once dominant form on the surface has shown vulnerability that Murray was eager to try and exploit.
The umpire gave Nadal a time violation on his third match point. “I’m trying to improve my intensity in the tournaments match after match”, Mr Monfils said. The last French player to win here was Cedric Pioline in 2000 – who was also the last French finalist – and Monfils is even more of an outsider considering he is 0-4 against Nadal on clay.At times it seemed Monfils could cause a big upset, hitting some superb winners from sometimes incredible angles and with brutal strength.
While these are early days in the long build up to the French Open it has been a hugely encouraging week for Nadal after his relative struggles in 2015. Monfils has definitely played some solid tennis at this tournament.
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Nadal emerged from a scattergun first set with the advantage after his third break of the Monfils serve secured the stanza 7-5.
