ThrowbackTimes Monte Carlo: Rafael Nadal wins tenth title to write history books

Back in 2017, Rafael Nadal successfully defended the crown in Monte, becoming the first player in the Open era with ten titles at the same event! A great Spaniard defeated his compatriot Albert Ramos-Vinolas 6-1, 6-3 in an hour and 16 minutes, playing much better throughout the match and emerging as a deserved winner to enter the record books again. Since 2005, when he was still 18, Nadal has been the dominant figure at this prestigious tournament, lifting ten trophies and suffering only four losses. His overall score in the Principality stood on a mind-blowing 63-4 after that year, a record that would be hard to beat in the decades to come. It was Nadal's 29th Masters 1000 crown, moving just one shy of Novak Djokovic and becoming the first player with 50 ATP titles on clay, leaving Guillermo Vilas on 49. Besides, it was the 70th ATP title for Rafa in his glorious career, something that had been achieved by only four players before him since 1968.

At the age of 30 years and ten months, Nadal also became the fourth oldest winner of the Masters 1000 trophy behind Roger Federer, Andre Agassi, and Ivan Ljubicic. It was the eighth all-Spanish Masters 1000 final and the first since Monte Carlo 2011, with Ramos-Vinolas advancing into his first Masters 1000 title match and achieving a career-best result. Nadal took control right from the start on a cold and cloudy day to never look back, marching confidently towards the new Monte Carlo trophy. The groundstrokes of a younger Spaniard were just not good enough to move Rafa from his comfort zone or to force him to change anything in his pattern of shots, with the result like this becoming inevitable in that scenario. Nadal served at 76% and dropped only nine points behind the initial shot, never facing a break point or deuce. On the other hand, Ramos-Vinolas won just half of the points in his games which could only mean trouble, playing against 11 break opportunities.

He fended off seven of those but four breaks were more than enough to push rock-solid Nadal over the finish line in just 76 minutes. Rafa fired 11 service winners, the number he would accept all day long in matches on clay, while Albert stayed on five. In the winners from the field segment, the defending champion also had a clear advantage, hitting 17 in comparison to nine from his opponent who was unable to penetrate Rafa or create an empty space with a few deep and strong strokes. They had a similar number of unforced errors, 17 for Ramos-Vinolas and 15 for Nadal, not a perfect number for the champion but nothing drastic as well with that number of winners by his name. Rafa forced 11 errors from his opponent and committed five, which also proves that Ramos-Vinolas failed to control the rallies more efficiently and make Nadal's shots more difficult. The match should have been marked with a battle of the forehands but Nadal proved to be too strong in that area, making Albert's most dangerous shot shaky and loose.

Nadal formed his way towards the victory in the shortest rallies, taking 32 out of 45 points with four strokes or less. 48% of the points were ended with the maximum number of four shots, something that was unimaginable during the 90s on slow clay, with Nadal taking full charge in those points. He served better, played the first shot after the serve more efficiently than Ramos-Vinolas and also had a clear advantage on return, placing it well and destroying Albert's attempts to impose his shots in the exchanges. Rafa was ahead in the mid-range exchanges as well (15-8), taking 47 out of 68 shortest points. Ramos-Vinolas performed better in the longest ones, though, grabbing nine out of 13, although the number was too small to make an impact on the overall score. Before his first return game, we saw an interesting comparison of Nadal's return placement on break points in Monte Carlo in 2016 and 2017, showing that he played much more to the rival's backhand (of course, in the matches with the right-handers).

His returns were also deeper in 2017 and that certainly gave results, converting 57% of the break chances before the final compared to only 45% in 2016. Nadal needed some time to find the range with his forehand, although he played strong from the very first point, determined to take an early advantage against the player who wasn't familiar with big matches like this. Rafa had three break chances in the second game, missing a forehand on each of those to waste a chance of moving in front. He fixed that next time around, though, breaking in game four with a crosscourt forehand winner, never looking back from that 3-1 lead.

It was 4-1 after just 21 minutes as Rafa completed the fifth game with a beautiful volley at the net after a 19-shot rally, earning another break in game six when Albert sprayed a forehand error. In game seven, Nadal faced the only problems on his serve in the entire encounter, trailing 30-0 but bouncing back in style, firing four winners in a row to seal the set with an ace after just 30 minutes. Ramos-Vinolas managed to end his drought at the beginning of the second set with holds at 30 before Nadal broke him in game five to move 3-2 in front, sealing the rival's fate as he faced no troubles on serve until the end of the match. The ninth game was the longest one and Rafa grabbed a break to take the set 6-3 and seal the deal, writing history once again on his beloved court and extending his Monte Carlo dominance for another season.

from Tennis World USA https://ift.tt/2yQg9mM