Nadal seals 10th Monte Carlo title
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E-mail Xinhua, April 24, 2017
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Nadal beats Ramos-Vinolas to win 10th Monte Carlo Masters. |
Rafael Nadal, nicknamed "King of Clay", claimed his 10th ATP Monte-Carlo Masters title with a 6-1, 6-3 victory over fellow Spaniard Albert Ramos-Vinolas on Sunday, becoming the first player in the Open Era to have won 10 titles of the same tournament.
It was Nadal's 29th ATP World Tour Masters 1000 champion, only one shy of Novak Djokovic. His 50th clay-court crown has bettered the previous record he shared with Argentine legend Guillermo Vilas (49).
"Ten titles here is something that I never dreamed of before. See you next year," said Nadal on the awarding ceremony, where a video showed every title he claimed at Monte-Carlo dating back to 2005.
No. 15 seed Ramos-Vinolas was riding on a fantastic week as he eliminated world No. 1 Andy Murray and fifth-seeded Marin Cilic en route to the final, while finding it hard to stop Nadal's quest for a historic 10th glory at Monte-Carlo.
After both players split the first two games, Nadal sped up to break twice and take the following five games for 6-1 win, capped by an ace.
At 2-2 in the second set, Nadal broke for the third time, before building a 5-3 lead into Ramos-Vinolas' service. After the underdog saved Nadal's two champion points, his double-fault converted the No. 4 seed's third champion point into a title in a 76-minute match.
Nadal won the tournament eight times in a row from 2005 to 2012, before adding his ninth last year.
Earlier on Sunday, Rohan Bopanna of India and Pablo Cuevas of Uruguay won the doubles final, 6-3, 3-6, 10-4, against the Spanish duo of Feliciano Lopez and Marc Lopez.
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