Rafael Nadal insists he has never been good with numbers, but with the sun shining at the Monte-Carlo Country Club a familiar smile has returned to his face. The Spaniard’s record at the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters is staggering — 10 titles from 11 finals, a 46-match winning streak from 2005-13 and a 63-4 mark overall. “It’s been a love story between me and this event, the people who run the tournament,” Nadal said. But the tournament’s oldest champion in the Open Era (at 30 years, 10 months in 2017) is clear this week on his primary objective: to complete the tournament. After more than two weeks on the red dirt, muscle memory in how he moves, plays and constructs points...
It will not take long for breathtaking tennis to be played at the Monte-Carlo Country Club, with plenty of jaw-dropping first-round matchups. The ATP World Tour's best are set to get things underway on Sunday at the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters, the first clay-court ATP World Tour Masters 1000 event of the season. Tomas Berdych v Kei Nishikori Any time two players who have climbed to No. 4 in the ATP Rankings meet at a tournament, it’s must-see action. And when they clash in the first round of an ATP World Tour Masters 1000 event, you need to grab extra popcorn. Nishikori leads the pair’s FedEx ATP Head2Head series 4-1, but interestingly enough, the bigger-hitting Berdych earned his lone victory on...
