Rafael Nadal broke his own record as he improved to 34 consecutive clay court sets and moved into the Monte-Carlo final with a 6-4 6-1 win over Grigor Dimitrov.
The first semi-final was intense from the start as Dimitrov was looking to become only the fourth man in history to beat Nadal in Monte-Carlo. Despite some entertaining rallies and high intensity, the Spaniard took the opening three games for a 3-0 lead.
However the Bulgarian, who was known for his fantastic agility, failed to give up and took advantage of some missed forehands from the world number one as he broke back and levelled the set at 3-3.
The Spaniard wasn’t playing his best level as his scrappy forehands meant that he was lacking that cutting edge in the middle of the set. However Dimitrov’s resistance was finally broken after he constructed a loose game full of double faults and errors. This allowed the ten time champion to take advantage and play more aggressively as he grabbed the opening set 6-4.
The second set was one way traffic as Nadal found his confidence and form, moving the Bulgarian around the court. The Spaniard seemed more authoritative as he once again used that damaging backhand to devastating effect. A clinical touch saw the world number one secure two breaks of serve and a 5-0 lead.
The Bulgarian was dealing with a back problem, which hindered his cause despite getting a game on the board. However after 1 hour and 30 minutes, Dimitrov was put out of his misery as Nadal cruised to a record breaking victory. It is now 34 consecutive sets on clay, which is a new record taking over from his previous 32 set haul.
The Spaniard didn’t celebrate for too long though as he soon texted his team, to try and book a practice court as he clearly wasn’t happy with his forehands today:
https://twitter.com/genny_ss/status/987685253610459136
Nadal will bid for an 11th Monte-Carlo title and another week at world number one when he plays either Kei Nishikori or Alexander Zverev in tomorrow’s final.
