Earlier in the week, I heard Jim Courier assert positively that ‘the top players always want to finish a match better than they started’. Based on that metric, I would assume Rafael Nadal is feeling pretty good about his performance today, winning the last 17 games of his fourth-round match against Juan Monaco, 6-2, 6-0, 6-0.
It was a demolition by anybody’s standards, and all the more impressive considering that Monaco has been having a fantastic season, bouncing back from an ankle injury to make his second round-of-16 appearance at Roland Garros. He didn’t play badly; it’s just that everything he does well, Nadal does better (and can pull off a few extra tricks besides). This leaves Monaco in the unenviable position—common to many of Nadal’s opponents, but particularly excruciating in the case of this clay-court specialist and aggressive counter-puncher—of playing the game he is most comfortable with and finding himself run all over the court.
Monaco managed to walk that line between a rock and a hard place for a stretch at the beginning of the match, having some success in targeting Nadal’s backhand and holding for 2-2, before Nadal put his foot on the gas. With Monaco serving, Nadal hit two big forehand winners to go 0-30 up. Monaco went for broke on a forehand at 30-40 and missed it, then framed a shot off a decent return for Nadal to take a 3-2 lead. The Argentine did not win another game, not because his commitment or energy level dropped—I don’t think anyone would have faulted him on either count—but because Nadal did everything better and better as the match went on: serving, returning, painting the lines.
A Job's comforter might be able to tell Monaco that at least he had little to reproach himself with in terms of squandered opportunities, because he saw so few. One moment that might have briefly stemmed the flow of games in Nadal’s favor came at the beginning of the second set. Already a break down with Nadal serving at 1-0, Monaco got to 30-30 when he found momentary success hitting a high ball to Nadal’s backhand to push him off the court, opening up the space for a forehand winner. A slick dropshot gave him deuce, and Nadal missed a forehand down the line for break point, only for Monaco to miss a forehand that might have won the point. It was the closest thing to a pivotal moment this match had. Another break point was saved with a big serve and forehand winner that Monaco could do nothing about, and he would not see another opportunity to break.
Nadal’s subdued celebration after closing out victory with a service winner presumably had much to do with having just demolished a friend. The defending champion will have no such mixed feelings about being in the quarterfinals for the loss of just 19 total games.
—Hannah Wilks