MONTE CARLO (Monaco) • They don't call Rafa Nadal the "King of Clay" for nothing and the greatest player to step foot on a clay court further burnished his already formidable legacy on the surface after romping to a record-extending 11th Monte Carlo Masters title.
The Spaniard secured his 24th Masters title on the surface by brushing aside an outclassed Kei Nishikori of Japan 6-3, 6-2 in yesterday's final to retain the world No. 1 ranking.
The 31-year-old in the process also became the first man to win a single tournament 11 times in the Open era with his 76th ATP Tour title, putting him one behind fourth-placed John McEnroe on the all-time singles list.
Nadal's 31st Masters title is also an outright record, pulling him out of a tie with former world No. 1 Novak Djokovic of Serbia.
"We've had some tough moments over these last five months," said Nadal, who was playing at his first ATP event since retiring from his Australian Open quarter-final against Croatia's Marin Cilic with a hip injury in January.
"I'll enjoy the moment and then tomorrow, we'll start to think about the next tournament. But now I'll enjoy winning a Masters 1000 tournament which doesn't happen every day."
The 16-time Grand Slam champion's era of utter dominance on clay looks unlikely to end any time soon after Nadal took his run of consecutive sets won on clay to 36.
Nadal had to win the tournament to remain at the top of the world rankings ahead of Swiss Roger Federer, who is skipping the entire clay-court season, and he did just that without losing more than five games in a match.
He will next set his sights on an 11th Barcelona Open victory this week, and it is hard to see anyone preventing him from extending his record number of 10 French Opens at the end of the clay-court season.
He was pushed by Nishikori early on and fell a break down, but roared back against an opponent who already appeared beaten midway through the first set.
It was still an excellent week for former world No. 4 Nishikori, who only returned from a four-month absence with a right wrist injury in January and will rise from his current ranking of 36th to the brink of the top 20. "It was a great week for me, I had an injury and couldn't play for a long time," he said.
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
ATP BARCELONA OPEN
Day 1: StarHub Ch201, 5pm
