Nadal, Federer Leave Little Room For Monte-Carlo Surprises. By Ricky Dimon
Nadal, Federer Leave Little Room For Monte-Carlo Surprises. By Ricky Dimonepa04168874 Roger Federer of Switzerland returns the ball to Radek Stepanek of the Czech Republic during their second round match at the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters tournament in Roquebrune Cap Martin, France, 16 April 2014. EPA/SEBASTIEN NOGIER |
Like Novak Djokovic one day earlier, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer shut the door on second-round opponents at the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters on Wednesday.
Nadal kicked off his bid for a ninth title at the tournament with a 6-4, 6-1 defeat of Teymuraz Gabashvili. The top-ranked Spaniard trailed 3-1 in the first set and was a point away from getting broken again for 4-1 before storming back.
“Always in the first match, the thing that you want at the beginning is get into a rhythm, play some long points, find the feelings,” Nadal explained. “But I didn’t have that chance because he started very quick with finding the winners on the first ball that he could.”
The No. 1 seed will try to find some early-match success on Thursday against Andreas Seppi. Nadal leads the head-to-head series 4-1, including 3-0 on clay. Seppi’s lone win came via a 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 decision on the indoor hard courts of Rotterdam in 2008. Nadal is 8-1 in total sets against Seppi on the slow stuff.
Federer has been even more dominant against Radek Stepanek, and the Swiss continued his success against the 35-year-old Czech with a 6-1, 6-2 rout that took just 52 minutes. On six total break points played in the match, Federer was four for four in conversions and two for two in saves on his own serve.
“I’m a bit surprised how well it went,” said the world No. 4. “Then again, it’s hard to serve through the opponent. I was able to get a lot of returns back into play. On clay, when you have the upper hand from the baseline, it’s kind of hard to get out of it.”
Up next for Federer is Lukas Rosol, who beat Michael Llodra 6-4, 6-4.
Rosol was one of four unseeded players to advance on Thursday, and only one of those four upset a seeded opponent. That honor belonged to Casablanca champion Guillermo Garcia-Lopez, who maintained his fine form by getting past Alexandr Dolgopolov 6-2, 7-5. Seppi and Pablo Carreno Busta also booked their tickets to the last 16.
Carreno Busta, a 6-3, 7-6(6) winner over Gael Monfils, has the reward of facing Djokovic on Friday.
Topics: Federer, Monte Carlo, Novak, Rafael Nadal, Ricky Dimon, Tennis News
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Nadal, Federer Leave Little Room For Monte-Carlo Surprises. By @RD_Tennistalk – http://t.co/nXyq5BhJkG @rogerfederer @RafaelNadal #tennis
RT @10sBalls_com: Nadal, Federer Leave Little Room For Monte-Carlo Surprises. By @RD_Tennistalk – http://t.co/nXyq5BhJkG @rogerfederer @Raf…