Men Tennis Update – Monte Carlo Monday, April 22, 2013

Written by: Staff on 21st April 2013

Men Tennis Update - Monte Carlo Monday, April 22, 2013

epa03671758 Novak Djokovic of Serbia returns the ball to Rafael Nadal of Spain during the final match at the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters tournament in Roquebrune Cap Martin, France, 21 April 2013. Djokovic won in two sets. EPA/SEBASTIEN NOGIER |

Monte Carlo

Singles – Final: (1) N Djokovic def. (3) R Nadal 6-2 7-6(7-1)

Apparently it can happen. Someone other than Rafael Nadal can win Monte Carlo.

It was a very near thing. After that blowout first set, Nadal led by a break for much of the second. But Nadal’s second serve was giving him fits (he won only two second serve points in the first set, and only five in the second), and eventually it came back to bite him.

Djokovic is now the only active player other than Nadal to have won Monte Carlo. He can also say that he has won all three of the clay Masters — Monte Carlo this year, and Rome and Madrid in 2011. Pretty good for a guy who wasn’t even sure he would be able to play!

The rest of the field can pretty well forget about overtaking Djokovic before fall. He now has a 4000 point lead over Roger Federer and Andy Murray. And he earned relatively few points in the summer. It’s simply too big a lead to make up; he will be #1 for a log time….

For Rafael Nadal, it’s a real blow. It’s not just that he lost a tournament which he had won eight times in a row. It’s that he was already down to #5, and he had almost everything to defend this spring. After this, it will be almost impossible for him to regain the #4 ranking in time for Roland Garros. Which raises the interesting question of whether he will bother trying to play Barcelona. On that point we’ll have to wait and see.

Doubles – Final: Benneteau/Zimonjic def. (1) Bryan/Bryan 4-6 7-6(7-4) 14-12

There has been a lot of rain this weekend, and looked as if it would wash out out Julien Benneteau and Nenad Zimonjic. They were up 3-0 in the second set when play was halted for several hours. Yes, they returned and won the second set, but the tide seemed to have turned — they were in real trouble in the match tiebreak before getting the minibreak back and, finally winning.

This is getting to be a frustrating mini-slump for the Bryans, who after winning the Australian Open and Indian Wells, lost relatively early in Miami, lost the final in Houston, and lost here. Still, they are at 4555 points in the team doubles Race, and no other team has as many as 2000 points. We’d have said the Bryans would have qualified for the year-end Championships had they won. This means they probably don’t, yet, but it’s sure to be coming.

It was an impressive debut for Benneteau/Zimonjic. It seems pretty clear that they should be sticking together! Given the fact that no one else has been threatening the Bryans, they just might be this year’s other Big Team. We would expect to follow them with interest.

©Daily tennis news wire

Topics: Bob And Mike Bryan, Davis Cup, Julien Benneteau, men tennis news, Monte Carlo, Nenad Zimonjic, Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, Roland Garros, Sports, Tennis, Tennis News