Rafael Nadal will be aiming for a ninth Monte-Carlo title when he takes the court on Sunday. Standing in Nadal’s way is Gael Monfils, who has not dropped a set or even been pushed to a tiebreaker in the entire tournament.
Rafael Nadal and Gael Monfils will be squaring off for the 14th time in their careers when they collide in the final of the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters on Sunday afternoon.
Nadal is dominating the head-to-head series 11-2, including 4-0 on clay. Each of Monfils’ two victories has come in Doha, where he prevailed in 2009 and 2012. Outside of Doha, Nadal is 10-0 against Monfils and 22-1 in total sets. They most recently faced each other on the grass courts of Stuttgart in 2015, when the Spaniard came out on top of a semifinal showdown 6-3, 6-4. Their only previous Monte-Carlo encounter marked their first-ever meeting, which Nadal won 6-3, 6-2.
Looking for his ninth title at this event and first since 2012, Nadal is in the midst of what has been his best week of 2016. The world No. 5 took care of Aljaz Bedene, Dominic Thiem, and Stan Wawrinka in straight sets before overcoming Andy Murray 2-6, 6-4, 6-2 on Saturday.
“It’s a very important week for me, being in a final here again in Monte-Carlo (and) winning against very tough opponents,” Nadal commented. “That’s a lot of great confidence; good news for me.”
Monfils has enjoyed plenty of good news during his trek through the draw. Once in a quarter featuring both Novak Djokovic and David Ferrer, the Frenchman saw the path clear when Ferrer withdrew and Djokovic lost his opener to Jiri Vesely. Monfils has not dropped a set and has not even played a tiebreaker in victories over Gilles Muller, Paolo Lorenzi, Vesely, Marcel Granollers, and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. Monfils is 20-5 for the year and will climb to No. 2 in the race to London if he lifts the Monte-Carlo trophy.
“The basis of my game is to be aggressive from the baseline and not step back,” Monfils said of his tactics against Nadal. “It’s going to be a physical combat. I saw a few rallies between Nadal and Murray. These were huge rallies on clay with deep shots, and I will need to play well if I want to win. To beat him I need to take many risks, and I need to have some luck.”
Even though this looks like a smarter, more controlled, and more motivated Monfils, the odds are still obviously stacked against him in this one–and not just because of his past futility against Nadal. The world No. 16 is a horrendous 5-18 lifetime in ATP finals and all five of his titles have come at the 250-point level. Monfils has the right idea when he talks about being aggressive against Nadal, but he has always found executing such a plan to be extremely difficult.
Pick: Nadal in 2
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Yes!! Vamos!! So emotional for Rafa!
He’s so nervy throughout the whole match, resulting in all those DFs and loss of serves. I hope this win will finally make him believe in his own ability and his own game. He has to improve his serve for sure and cut down on his FH errors.
True that!!!
I never had a chance to tell you how much I love your avatar, hawks! 😉
TY nats. It stays until at least the end of RG.
VAMOS!!!
Rafa’s 9 MC titles:
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CgQhTT1WIAEYVrd.jpg
? to Rafa!
Final game and trophy ceremony
https://rutube.ru/play/embed/8451801?isFullTab=true
I can’t get it to play. It keeps stopping.
Bummer…just clicked and it works fine for me.
I tried another browser because Windows 10 Edge wasn’t working. So I saw about half of it before it kept stopping. I did see the video of Rafa’s speech on VB.
It’s difficult for rafa to make up 1100 points plus to overtake stan current points deficit plus defending deficit. Unless he wins Barcelona and 1 more masters and final of other masters
Its not 1100 points, its 865 points. Its possible if Rafa wins Barcelona and Madrid and adds points at Rome( he reached QF at Rome last year).
I feel Rafa after overcoming nerves and doubts to win MC, will have confidence in his own game now, so he will most probably beat the others to win his titles on clay. Djoko no doubt is his main obstacle but Djoko hasnt proven that he’s as formidable on clay this year as he was last year.
I do feel as long as Rafa can work on his serve and BHDTL shot, he will have his chances vs Djoko.
what is Stan defending?
Stan has 90 from Madrid and 360 from Rome. Rafa has 600 from Madrid and 180 from Rome.
Stan now has 6460 points and Rafa 5595. Rafa can still add points at Barcelona if he does better than SF there.
I’m so proud of what Rafa has achieved, amazing perseverance, it’s easy to be a champion when everything is going your way but to be able to overcome and turn around the bad times has a lot of value!
Agree with you, well said!
Shireling:
Did you pluck up the courage to watch Monte Carlo??????
I recall you saying some months ago you’d lost heart and couldn’t take seeing Rafa humiliated any more.