At a tournament he has dominated over the years, Rafael Nadal’s love affair with the Monte Carlo Masters hit a fresh low on Saturday.
The king of clay struggled to find his rhythm as he was sent crashing out 6-4, 6-2, to Italian veteran Fabio Fognini in their semi-final clash. Besides some fine play from Fognini, Nadal was clearly far from his best on his beloved surface. The match saw the Spaniard failed to win more than 50% of the points behind either his first or second serve. Furthermore, Nadal produced a costly 25 unforced errors to 10 winners as he dropped serve six times.
“It was a tough day and [Fabio] was a difficult opponent,” said Nadal. “I am coming from low moments in terms of injuries, and in terms of the mental side, it has not been easy to accept all the things that have been going on… It was this kind of day that everything was wrong.
“I probably played one of the worst matches on clay in 14 years. So when that happens, you have to lose. And today I deserved to lose because I played against a player that was better than me today.”
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Heading into the start of the clay court season there has been concerns about the 11-time French Open champion. In recent months Nadal’s challenge on the tour has been hindered by injury. The most recent was in March where he was forced to pull out of Indian Wells due to a knee problem. In total Nadal has only played in four tournaments so far this season.
Reflecting on his latest loss on the tour, which is his first on the clay since Madrid last May, Nadal admits that the injury breaks have taken a toll on his tennis. An unsurprising revelation given that face he retired or withdrew from 11 out of 12 tournaments that was played on a hard court in 2018.
“The Problem sometimes is we are used to be very, very solid all the time, and even coming back from injuries, winning and winning and winning, and things are not easy, no?” He explained.
“And after one year and a half, without having the chance to play tournaments in a row and a lot of stuff happened, it is more difficult to hold sometimes the level every single day when you don’t have confidence in tournaments in a row, no, or matches in a row.”
Amid his setbacks, Nadal has still managed to show that he has what it takes to be at the top of the sport. Illustrated by his run to the final of the Australian Open in January. Since last year’s French Open, he has managed to reach the semi-finals or better at seven out of the eight tournaments he has played in.
“Even if I have been very competitive at all the tournaments that I have been playing, all these stops create some non stability in terms of you know that you have this 60 or 70% of your level, 100%.” He said. “Then some days you have that 90 or 100, but this 70, you have it always.”
Fognini’s rise
Regardless of Nadal’s issues, Fognini has earned his place in the Monte Carlo final. He is only the third person to score three or more wins over Nadal on the clay since 2006. Following in the footsteps of Novak Djokovic (seven wins) and Dominic Thiem (three wins). It is only the second time Fognini has defeated a top two player after Andy Murray at the 2017 Rome Masters.
“I was telling him yesterday that I [knew I had] the game to play against him,” said Fognini. “Sometimes I won a few matches. [I won] one crazy one at the US Open and two times on clay. So I knew that I had nothing to lose, because, of course, especially when you go with him on clay, it’s always really tough.”
When questioned about the performance of the top seed, Fognini refused to look too much into it. Their Monte Carlo clash with the 15th time they have met on the tour. Nadal still leads their head-to-head 11-4.
“That’s not the question that I have to answer. You should ask him.” The world No.18 stated. “I just say that I played incredible match.”
Fognini now has a shot at winning his first Masters 1000 title. Standing in his way will be Dusan Lajovic, who will contest his first ever ATP Final. Meanwhile, Nadal will be returning to his home country ahead of the Barcelona Open.
