Tennis: Nadal gives Spain Davis Cup lead
Nadal has never lost a Davis Cup singles rubber on clay and took his record on the red dust to 15-0.
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 3rd, 2011.
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 3rd, 2011.