Nadal extends unbeaten run

TENNIS/Monte Carlo Masters Series:Rafael Nadal, the French Open champion for the past two years, began yesterday where he left off last season on clay with a conclusive 6-3, 6-1 victory over Argentina's Juan Ignacio Chela at the Masters here, extending his unbeaten run on the surface to 63 matches.

"Very nice. Very comfortable. Very, very good," said the 20-year-old Mallorcan, which may be bad news for opponents.

Not that Serbia's Novak Djokovic was overawed any more than one would expect from the youngest player in the top 10. Was he going to be the one to beat Nadal on clay? "I hope so," he said after defeating the 2004 French Open champion Gaston Gaudio of Argentina 6-1, 3-6, 6-1 for a place in the last 16. And did he think he could? "Yes."

Djokovic has already defeated the Spaniard on the United States hard courts this season and last year had his best grand slam championship at Roland Garros, reaching the last eight before retiring when two sets down against Nadal.

"I am much more mentally and physically stronger this year," said the 19-year-old, one week younger than Andy Murray, whom he has beaten twice this year. Djokovic, mature and confident, reached the finals of the two previous Masters events, losing to Nadal in Indian Wells and beating Argentina's Guillermo Canas in Miami.

The possibility of Monte Carlo being dropped as a Masters series event, currently comprising the top nine tournaments outside of the four majors, appears to have receded after a lengthy meeting on Tuesday between Etienne de Villiers, the president of the ATP, the world's top two players Roger Federer and Nadal and Croatia's Ivan Ljubicic, president of the player council.

Federer had called for greater consultation over the 2009 calendar and it is probable the Masters series will remain at the current number.

Madrid will move from the autumn to the spring as a clay-court tournament and Shanghai will be added in the autumn. The Hamburg clay-court tournament would be downgraded, although it has opened legal action against the ATP, so the outcome remains far from clear-cut and De Villiers, who tried to push through the changes willy-nilly, remains vulnerable.

Guardian Service