ATP World Tour Champion Rafael Nadal, who is looking to capture a record fifth successive Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters trophy this week, produced an awesome display of counter-attacking tennis to secure a 6-2, 6-3 second-round victory over Juan Ignacio Chela on Wednesday.
The 22-year-old Mallorcan kept Chela pinned behind the baseline with some thunderous groundstrokes, particularly off the forehand wing, to improve to 5-1 lifetime against the World No. 167, who returned to action in February following an eight-month absence from the ATP World Tour circuit due to a herniated disc injury.
“I think it is important to try to start well,” explained Nadal, “to have the confidence for the rest of the clay season. But the important thing is the tournament. [It] is [a] really important tournament for me. Monte-Carlo is [an] historic tournament.”
Last year, Nadal became the first player to win four straight titles since New Zealand’s Anthony Wilding from 1911-1914. Only Reggie Doherty (1897-99, 1902-04) has won more titles in the 103-year history of the clay-court championship.
“I have to improve [my] concentration in the next match,” said Nadal, who has a 25-1 career record in Monte-Carlo, having won 23 straight matches. His last loss came in the 2003 third round to Guillermo Coria. “That's the important thing.”
Chela, 29, dropped to 16-44 lifetime against Top 10 opponents after dropping his serve five times to Nadal, who has a 25-4 record on the season and is 134-4 on clay-courts since 2005.
Once again Nadal has proven to be the player to beat during the European clay-court season that includes ATP World Tour Masters 1000 stops at Rome and Madrid before he attempts to capture a fifth successive Roland Garros crown.
Nadal will next meet either Russian Marat Safin or qualifier Nicolas Lapentti of Ecuador in the third round.
David Ferrer, another Spaniard who has enjoyed his time at the Monte-Carlo Country Club as a four-time quarter-finalist, ensured France will not have a representative in the third round for the first time since 1995 when the 10th seed thrashed Marc Gicquel 6-1, 6-0 in just 50 minutes.
Ferrer, currently No. 12 in the South African Airways 2009 ATP Rankings, restricted Gicquel to just 10 points on serve in the pair’s fourth career meeting. The 27 year old goes on to meet Australian Open semi-finalist and seventh-seeded compatriot Fernando Verdasco, who dispatched Philipp Kohlschreiber of Germany earlier in the day.
Nadal will next meet Ecuadorian qualifier and World No. 98 Nicolas Lapentti, who beat the Spaniard on clay in a third-set tie-break at Bastad in 2003. On Thursday, Lapentti will attempt to become the second player to beat Nadal twice on clay in his career. Former Roland Garros champion Gaston Gaudio did it three times (2003-04-05).
The 31-year-old Lapentti won an epic encounter on Court des Princes against former World No. 1 Marat Safin of Russia 7-6(6), 2-6, 7-6(6) over three hours and 29 minutes. It was the pair’s first meeting since Barcelona in 2000.
Safin led Lapentti 4-0 in the deciding set and first squandered two match points, whilst serving at 5-2, 40-15. Two games later another match point went begging, which only boosted Lapentti’s confidence of scoring his sixth win on the 2009 ATP World Tour circuit.
When Safin was broken by Lapentti for a 6-5 lead, the temperamental Russian snapped his racquet in two pieces and received a penalty point. Lapentti began serving at 15-0 in the next game and quickly gained three match points. Match over? Not a chance. Safin regained his composure and won five straight points to take the second-round clash to a tie-break.
Lapentti stormed into a 5-1 lead, before Safin got back to trail 4-5. Match points numbers four and five went the Russians way when Lapentti led 6-4.
At 7-6, Lapentti would surely capitalise on a sixth match point? A rally, contested by players wracked with nerves, from behind the baseline, came to an end when Lapentti approached the net forcing Safin to pass him with a backhand down the line. The ball went into the net and handed Lapentti a famous win.
Lapentti joins German Andreas Beck and Fabio Fognini of Italy as qualifiers who have made it into the third round. The last time this happened at the Monte-Carlo Country Club was six years ago, when Alberto Martin (l. to Ferrero) and Filippo Volandri (l. to Spadea) reached the quarter-finals and a 16-year-old Nadal (l. to Coria) in the third round.
(From Website : http://www.atpworldtour.com/TENNIS/1/EN/NEWS/NEWSARTICLE_3156.ASP)
