Rafael Nadal resumed his clay-court domination today. The unfortunate victim was Juan Ignacio Chela. He beat Chela 6-2 6-3. This win was his 23rd consecutive win in Monte-Carlo.
Nadal jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the first set. Chela then won 11 consecutive points to cut Nadal’s lead 4-2. Nadal tightened the hatches and cruised to take the next two games and the set. A similar scenario happened in the second set, but Nadal took control again and cruised to victory.
The Spaniard will meet qualifier Nicolas Lapentti of Ecuador, who dismissed Marat Safin in a 3 ½ hour epic match. Safin lost 6-7(6) 6-2 6-7(6). Safin lost the first set, but cruised to take the second set.
It look like Safin had rallied to send the ATP World No. 98 home after being up 4-0 in the final set. The Russian served for the match at 5-2, but somehow Lapentti dug in to fight off two match points. The Ecuadorian broke Safin and then rattled off another three consecutive games and saved another match point along the way.
It looked like they were headed to a tiebreak, but then Lapentti broke Safin in the eleventh game. He then served for the match and had three match points, but Safin broke the Ecuadorian to send the match to a tiebreak.
Lapentti jumped out to a 4-0 lead, and then later Safin missed a forehand for 5-1. Safin took a minibreak and held serve for 5-4. He then mishit a forehand to give Lapentti three match points.
Naturally, Safin saved two match points to tie it at 6-6. Lapentti dug in again, and it did not help that Safin double faulted to give Lapentti match point number 6. This time Lapentti converted to upset the Russian in his final Monte-Carlo appearance.
This is Lapentti’s first round of 16 appearance this year. His last round of 16 was in 2008 in Cincinnati where he eventually lost in the quarterfinal to Rafael Nadal, incidenttally. That was their last meeting. Their only other meeting was in 2003 in Bastad where Lapentti won in three sets.
(Images: AP)
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