Nadal Gets Win # 300 On Clay, Federer & Djokovic Also On Fire In Monte-Carlo by Ricky Dimon

Written by: Staff on 17th April 2014

Nadal Gets Win # 300 On Clay, Federer & Djokovic Also On Fire In Monte-Carlo by Ricky Dimon

epa04150800 Spanish tennis player Rafael Nadal smiles during a promotional event in Madrid, Spain, 02 April 2014. Nadal signed a brand ambassador contract with Spain?s Banco Sabadell. EPA/CHEMA MOYA |

Nadal gets his 300 th. win today!

Three more match victories this week would give Rafael Nadal his ninth career title at the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters. For now, two are enough to help him arrive at a career milestone. Nadal followed up his 6-4, 6-1 defeat of Teymuraz Gabashvili with a 6-1, 6-3 victory over Andreas Seppi on Thursday for his 300th career win on clay.

The top-ranked Spaniard converted all five of his break-point opportunities to set up an all-Spanish quarterfinal showdown against David Ferrer, who downed Grigor Dimitrov 6-4, 6-2.

“David is a tough, tough player on any surface,” assured Nadal, who leads their head-to-head series 21-5. “But here on clay, it’s always a big challenge. I have played a lot of matches against him, very tough ones. If you are not at your top, top level, it is very difficult to win. I need to be ready for that.”

Roger Federer is also likely to face a more difficult test on Friday. The 32-year-old Swiss raced into the last eight with a 6-4, 6-1 scalp of Lukas Rosol that required just 57 minutes of action. Next up for Federer is Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, who overcame Fabio Fognini 5-7, 6-3, 6-0. Federer leads their head-to-head series 10-4, but their most recent clay-court meeting saw Tsonga prevail 7-5, 6-3, 6-3 at last year’s French Open.

“I didn’t play a very good match against him at the French last year,” said Federer. “That was a bit of a disaster for me. On the other side, I played a really good match against in the Australian this year. So kind of excited to see what’s going to happen this time around.”

With most of the top players in the world looking good in Monte-Carlo, a blockbuster weekend of excitement should be in the cards. Nobody, however, has been nearly as impressive as Novak Djokovic. The second-ranked Serb has lost only two games in two matches following a 6-1, 6-0 rout of Albert Montanes and a 6-0, 6-1 whitewash of Pablo Carreno Busta.

Djokovic will go up against another Spaniard in Guillermo Garcia-Lopez rather than Tomas Berdych, but another bagel and breadstick may not be a sure thing even though the draw looks favorable with Berdych out. Garcia-Lopez is coming off a title in Casablanca and he has won three matches in Monte-Carlo, including his 4-6, 6-3, 6-1 upset of Berdych on Thursday.

Topics: Clay Court, djokovic, Monte Carlo, Rafa, Ricky Dimon, Roger Federer, Tennis News

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10sBalls_com says:

April 17, 2014 at 12:54 pm

Nadal Gets Win # 300 On Clay, Federer & Djokovic Also On Fire In Monte-Carlo by @RD_Tennistalk – http://t.co/LPt5LcYQTZ @RafaelNadal #tennis
RD_Tennistalk says:

April 17, 2014 at 2:26 pm

RT @10sBalls_com: Nadal Gets Win # 300 On Clay, Federer & Djokovic Also On Fire In Monte-Carlo by @RD_Tennistalk – http://t.co/LPt5LcYQTZ @…