Nadal won the Monte Carlo Master Title
Rafael Nadal finished up a fifth successive Monte Carlo Masters title and is overcoming preferred to create it five in a row at the French Open, but his uncle and coach Toni is still not pleased.
World No.1 Nadal played a 6-3 2-6 6-1 triumph over Novak Djokovic in the final on Sunday to equal the five titles achieved by New Zealander Anthony Wilding a century before.
He is now 23-1 in clay court finals, with his only defeat coming at Hamburg in May 2007 to Roger Federer and has attracted level with the Swiss with 14 Masters Crowns.
Nadal said, “He performed a good third set, but it’s understandable he must play superior to this week”. He was losing a little confidence in his game and you could see that his serve was amazingly weak. But it’s the first tournament on clay this season for him and I hope that with some more matches, it’ll get better. We award that there’s a lot of work to do before Roland Garros. But he still achieved. It’s a very imperative tournament for us and to win for a fifth time is incredible.”
Nadal, who has now a 139-4 winning record on clay since 2005, insists that thoughts of a fifth French Open victory are at the back of his mind with the Barcelona and Rome Masters to come in between a return to Paris.
Nadal further said after gathering his third title this season following the Australian Open and Indian Wells Masters, “I am not thinking about Roland Garros so far, I’m paying attention on Barcelona and Rome, there are more significant tournaments before Paris”.
“It’s amazing to win and achieve five titles in Monte Carlo. If I had to choose one Masters Series to win before the season it would be here. I found myself very well physically and mentally on the court.”
Djokovic, the world number three, valued Nadal’s claycourt power.
“You just have to pay attention on every single point because you have a player on the other side of the net that doesn’t actually give you any points,” said the Serbian. You could see him at 5-1 in the third set; he played like its 5-all. He really doesn’t worry about the consequence. He just wishes to provide his best every solitary point. Therefore he’s very exclusive and unique and that’s why he’s the most excellent now.”