Djokovic and Nadal both play down their chances at Monte Carlo

Written by: Staff on 20th April 2013

Djokovic and Nadal both play down their chances at Monte Carlo

epa03669795 Rafael Nadal of Spain returns the ball to Jo-Wilfried Tsonga of France during their semi final match at the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters tournament in Roquebrune Cap Martin, France, 20 April 2013. EPA/SEBASTIEN NOGIER |

But… someone’s got to win it!!

Regulation victories for Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic steered them through to a final showdown at Monte Carlo – in a repeat of the 2012 final there.

Djokovic will hope for a change in fortunes against Nadal here on the shores of the beautiful Mediterranean Sea. The 2012 final was tipped as a chance for someone anyone to break the monopoly that Nadal has held in this millionaires’ playground since 2005 – he was instead given a 6-3, 6-1 drubbing.

Djokovic and Nadal have, despite both of their best efforts in the media room to play down their chances of success here, reached the final in Monte Carlo. Nadal of course has his long-term knee problem to manage, and has now apparently tweaked something in his back; and Djokovic of course rolled his ankle in a Davis Cup match against USA.

So, taking both players at their word, the final should be a dire affair – both hobbling around wincing and crying out in pain. Expect most serves to either dribble into the net, or if they get over the net expect them to be aces. Short rallies, awful shots played – yup, it’s going to be awful.

Except… it probably won’t be – it’ll probably be great. It may well be awful in terms of a competitive outcome, Nadal is a hot favourite to claim a 9th title in a row here, but in terms of tennis it should be a rather good match.

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga may have looked a testing proposition on paper, but on clay it was a rather more predictable outcome. Tsonga should probably feel that he’s done well just by taking the second set to a tie-break, he in fact broke back in that last set – not many people get even a sniff of a set against Nadal in Monte Carlo.

Djokovic had to overcome Italian Fabio Fognini in his semi-final, and made light work of the Italian, beating him 6-1, 6-1 in under an hour. If Djokovic can reach a final with a supposed twisted ankle, imagine what he could achieve when fully fit?

And there’s the rub… what could he possibly hope to achieve when fully fit, aside from a chance to participate in one of the great dominant strangle-holds in the history of tennis? Nadal has this place locked-down, tied-up, worked-out, and nobody else gets a look-in. So even if Djokovic was fully fit, or if he is fully fit but is playing the rather tedious game of “claim the underdog tag” that the top players seem to be playing these days – chances are the result will be the same, Nadal will win his ninth title in a row.

Topics: Davis Cup, Jo Wilfried Tsonga, men tennis news, Monte Carlo, Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, Sports, Tennis, Tennis News

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GameSetNash says:

April 21, 2013 at 3:24 am

RT @10sBalls_com: Djokovic and Nadal both play down their chances at Monte Carlo: http://t.co/8Rgn8UCFTS #tennis