Spanish tennis player Rafael Nadal returns a ball to his French opponent Lucas Pouille during the Monte-Carlo Masters in Monaco yesterday.
DPA/Monte Carlo
Rafael Nadal returned to classic clay-court form as he dealt out a 6-2, 6-1 opening victory against Frenchman Lucas Pouille at the Monte Carlo Masters to reach the third round.
The eight-time champion joined longtime rival Roger Federer with a win after the Swiss second seed crushed another French opponent, Jeremy Chardy, 6-2, 6-1 in well under an hour.
“I’ve had 10 days of clay training and I feel prepared,” said Federer, a three-time runner-up. “I thought I served well, had a high first serve percentage and was able to control the baseline.
“On clay, things move ahead very quickly, I must say.”
Nadal was pleased by his comprehensive win in 68 minutes over wild card Pouiille. After poor results this season - save one small clay title in Argentina - the king of clay is working to find his old
rhythm “I played with the right mentality, the right concentration, I didn’t have (a lot of) mistakes in a row. That’s something that happened the last couple months with me,” he said.
“Historically I am a (regular) player, I can have mistakes, but not three in a row. I am working on that to fix that. Today I fixed. Today I played solid.
“I practised well before the tournament start, I had a good five days here in Monte Carlo. But playing matches is always more important.”
Nadal never faced a break point while breaking his wild card opponent three times. He lifted his last trophy in the principality three years ago.
The 28-year-old Spaniard won the Monte Carlo title every year from 2005-12, but fell to Novak Djokovic in the 2013 final, a loss which ended an 81-match winning streak on clay in the month of April as well as 46 consecutive wins in Monaco.
He went down in the quarter-finals a year ago to compatriot David Ferrer and now stands 51-3 at the tournament where he first got a wildcard as a raw teenager in 2003. Fourth seed Milos Raonic started with a defeat of Joao Sousa 6-3, 7-6 (7-4); Czech sixth seed Tomas Berdych reached the last 16 with a defeat of Sergiy Stakhovsky 6-4, 7-6 (7-2).
Holder Stan Wawrinka made quick work of Argentine Juan Monaco 6-1, 6-4 as the Swiss seventh seed began the defence of his first Masters 1000 title.
“I played a great match. It’s tough first round to play Monaco, but it’s a typical clay court match,”said the 2014 Australian Open winner.
“This is quite good, I’m really happy with the start. It’s been really difficult over the last two months had two last months (Marseille quarter-final and second and third-round defeats in the US).
“I was happy to change, to come on clay again. The conditions are great here, so I’m happy with the first match.”
Ninth seed Grigor Dimitrov stopped Italy’s Fabio Fognini 6-3, 6-4 while Spain’s 16th seed Tommy Robredo hammered compatriot Marcel Granollers 6-1, 6-1.
Results
2nd rd: Stan Wawrinka (SUI x7) bt Juan Monaco (ARG) 6-1, 6-4 Tommy Robredo (ESP x16) bt Marcel Granollers (ESP) 6-1, 6-1 Rafael Nadal (ESP x3) bt Lucas Pouille (FRA) 6-2, 6-1 Tomas Berdych (CZE x6) bt Sergiy Stakhovsky (UKR) 6-4, 7-6 (7/2) Roberto Bautista Agut (ESP x12) bt Philipp Kohlschreiber (GER) 6-7 (3/7), 6-3, 7-6 (7/4) Grigor Dimitrov (BUL x9) bt Fabio Fognini (ITA) 6-3, 6-4 Gilles Simon (FRA x10) bt Benoit Paire (FRA) 6-4, 7-5 Roger Federer (SUI x2) bt Jeremy Chardy (FRA) 6-2, 6-1 Milos Raonic (CAN x4) bt Joao Sousa (POR) 6-3, 7-6 (7/4) John Isner (USA x15) bt Viktor Troicki (SRB) 7-6 (7/4), 7-6 (7/5) Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (FRA x11) bt David Goffin (BEL) 6-3, 6-4 Gael Monfils (FRA x14) bt Alexandr Dolgopolov (UKR) 7-6 (7/5), 7-6 (8/6).
