TENNIS BUENOS AIRES – Rafa Nadal has lifted his first trophy of the season and his first title in nearly nine years by winning the Buenos Aires title against Juan Monaco with 6-4 6-1 in one hour and 26 minutes after a long rain delay in his first appearance in the Argentine capital since 2005. Diego Sampaolo
By winning his first Argentina Open title Nadal has added another title to his trophy cabinet bringing the total to 65 career wins, including 46 tournaments on his favourite clay surface (equalling Guillermo Vilas’ 46 wins on clay). Vilas attended the match from the stand
Nadal, who has not lifted a title since his ninth Roland Garros triumph last June, finally broke the long drought by winning his first Buenos Aires with a 6-4 6-1 win over his close friend Juan “Pico” Monaco who was bidding to become the Argentine player to win the home tournament since David Nalbandian in 2008
The first set started with two long games featuring 10 points before the match was interrupted for one hour by rain at 1-1. After the match resumed both players held their service games but Nadal earned two break points with a drop-shot and a backhand winner in the seventh game. Monaco saved the first break point but he hit his service return into the net and dropped his serve . After taking the break Nadal held his service games and sealed the first set with 6-4 after 45 minutes.
Nadal earned three break points . Monaco saved the first two but Nadal converted it at the third opportunity. The Mallorcan “King of Clay” got a double break to cruise to a 4-0 lead. Monaco, who won the Buenos Aires in 2007 and finished runner-up in 2009, won his first game of the second set for 1-4 but he never earned a single break point. Nadal broke serve for the third time in the second set to close out on his first match point. Nadal extended his winning record over Monaco in their clay head-to-head matches to 6-0 and to 6-1 in their overall matches. The only time Monaco managed to beat his occasional doubles partner was in Cincinnati on hard-court in 2007 when Nadal was forced to withdraw. Monaco suffered from a wrist injury in 2014 and struggled for most of his last season. It was rumoured that he would retire but he started playing better reaching the semifinals in Shenzhen and the quarter final in Dusseldorf. He did not win a single match in the first four tournaments in 2015 but things improved when he reached the quarter final in Rio de Janeiro where he lost to eventual champion David Ferrer in the quarter finals.
With his triumph on the Buenos Aires clay Nadal has completed his collection of wins in the South American Golden Swing after two titles in Acapulco in 2005 and 2013, Sao Paulo in 2005 and 2013 and Rio de Janeiro in 2014.
Nadal moves up to fifth in the Open Era titles list with 65 wins overtaking Bjorn Borg and pete Sampras who clinched 64 trophies apiece. Spain has dominated the last seven editions of the Buenos Aires ATP 250 tournament with Tommy Robredo in 2009, Juan Carlos Ferrero in 2010, Nicolas Almagro in 2011, David Ferrer three times in 2012, 2013 and 2014 and now Rafa Nadal in 2015
“I had the hope of winning here and I prepared very well for this, so it’s objective achieved. It was a complicated day for everybody. Both for me and Monaco but especially for the fans who had to wait. We have to thank them for staying until the end”, said Rafa Nadal
