The History of Men's Tennis (Open Era)

(1)Rafael Nadal d. (4)David Ferrer    6-4, 7-5     (2:16 h)

Just like in years 2008 and 2010, Nadal clinches his first title of the season at the Monte-Carlo Country Club, establishing an Open era record of the most consecutive titles in one tournament – seven. Despite a defeat to Ferrer during the last Australian Open, Nadal was a huge favorite today, given his amazing streak in Monaco… There were three breaks of serve in the 1st set between the 3rd and 5th game of the match. Nadal leading 3:2 was forced to save a triple break point, also at 4:3 he had a tough game on serve (four deuces – the longest game of the match). In the following set he led 4:2, but ambitious and tenacious as always “Pics”, broke back and having a 5:4* (15-all) lead, missed an easy overhead, and lost the momentum immediately – Nadal got the next three games, albeit the last two games went to ‘deuce’. Nadal hadn’t won a title in his six previous tournaments, which were played in the last six months. It is his 44th career-title, including an ATP record of 19 ‘Masters’ titles, Andre Agassi and Roger Federer share the second position with 17 titles. En route to the Monte Carlo title, Nadal beat Ferrer in straight sets also in 2008 & 2010, today they met for the 16th time (the younger Spaniard leads 12-4). It’s Nadal’s third biggest rivalry, he has played more matches only against Novak Djokovic and Federer. The No. 1 in the world said after the final: “[To] win seven times in a row any where is almost impossible I think. But to win Monte Carlo, all the best players in the world are here, you always have tough matches, is impossible to imagine for me. So I am very lucky, I think.”

  Doubles final:
(1)Bob Bryan/Mike Bryan d. Juan Ignacio Chela/Bruno Soares 6-3, 6-2

List of players with the most consecutive titles in one tournament (the Open era):

7 – Rafael Nadal (Monte Carlo 2005-11)
6 – Guillermo Vilas (Buenos Aires 1973-78*)
5 – Bjorn Borg (Wimbledon 1976-80), Balazs Taroczy (Hilversum 1978-82), Yevgeny Kafelnikov (Moscow 1997-01), Roger Federer (Wimbledon 2003-07 & US Open 2004-08), Nadal (Barcelona 2005-09)
4 – Jimmy Connors (Birmingham 1974-77), Borg (Roland Garros 1978-81), Pete Sampras (Wimbledon 1997-00), Federer (Halle 2003-06), Nadal (Roland Garros 2005-08)

* Vilas won Buenos Aires twice in 1977

David “Pics” Ferrer [6] advanced to his second ‘Masters 1000’ final with a rather comfortable win over Jurgen Melzer 6-3, 6-2. “Pics” took a revenge on Melzer [9] for two Parisian defeats last year (Roland Garros & Paris-Bercy) in 78 minutes. The Austrian began the match promisingly with a 3:1* ‘deuce’ lead, but Ferrer won five straight games. Similar thing happened in the 2nd set, ‘2:1’ for Melzer and five straight games for Ferrer (Melzer had two break points in the final game, one of them “Pics” saved after a very long rally at the net). Ferrer reaches the final in impressive style, no-one won against him more than three games in a set! Ferrer: “I was thinking at the beginning of the first games, he played a really good game, was playing very aggressive. [It was] a surprise to me. Maybe the key was in my serve. I played very consistent. I didn’t make mistakes. I played very regular and very focused all the match
Rafael Nadal [1] has opened double-digit of wins # against Andy Murray [4], beating him in 2 hours 58 minutes 6-4, 2-6, 6-1 in the second, 20-minute delayed semifinal (Murray received injections to the sore right arm). It was a high quality tennis, especially in the 1st set, highlighted by a sequence of two very long games after a change of ends in the middle of the 2nd set which lasted 29 minutes in total (!) – Murray won both games to lead 4:1: the first one after 19 minutes 3 seconds (eight deuces, saving five break points), the second one after 10 minutes 18 seconds (four deuces, Nadal had three game points). Murray broke Nadal’s 32-set winning streak on clay… Stats of the match

# List of players beaten by Nadal at least 10 times (in paranthesis the exact H2H):

(16-9) Novak Djokovic
(15-8) Roger Federer
(11-4) David Ferrer
(11-0) Fernando Verdasco
(10-4) Andy Murray
(10-3) Thomas Berdych