Tennis: Nadal gives Spain Davis Cup lead

SEVILLE:

Rafael Nadal opened Spain’s bid for a third Davis Cup triumph in four years with a ruthless 6-1, 6-1, 6-2 destruction of Argentina’s Juan Monaco to put the favourites 1-0 ahead in the best-of-five final.

Playing on his favoured clay surface in front of a boisterous home crowd, the world number two clubbed 27 winners, 20 of them on his fearsome forehand, as the 26th-ranked Monaco was dismissed with brutal ease.

Nadal has never lost a Davis Cup singles rubber on clay and took his record on the red dust to 15-0 as Spain seek to add to their four titles against an Argentina side they upset to win the Cup in Mar del Plata in 2008.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 3^rd, 2011.