Monte Carlo Masters 2021: Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic among big seeds to be knocked out

Rafael Nadal is a Spanish tennis legend, having won 20 Grand Slam titles and is an 11-time winner at Monte Carlo, currently ranked third. Meanwhile, Serbia’s Novak Djokovic is the reigning world number one, having won 18 Slams, along with two Monte Carlo titles.

The ongoing Monte Carlo Masters has witnessed a couple of upsets in two days. Record 11-time champion Rafael Nadal was defeat by eighth-ranked Russian Andrey Rublev in the quarters on Friday.

It mainly was a one-sided game, with the Russian breaking the Spaniard twice in the opening set to win 6-2. Nadal bounced back in the second in a competitive manner, earning a break and winning 6-4. However, Rublev was back at its best in the deciding set with another double break and take it 6-2.

It was the Russian’s first win over the Spaniard in the three games they have played so far. “If we look [at] a player like Rafa, who is the best clay-court player in history, then, of course, it’s one of my best victories for sure. But, if you look at from other side, how he feels, for sure he didn’t play his even ‘good’ level today. In his position, it’s so tough when people expect you’re the best player on clay and you have to win yes or yes every time. You cannot lose on clay because you’re the best. It’s so tough to play with this feeling,” Rublev said during the post-match press conference, reports ATP.

Meanwhile, Nadal blamed his serve for being ineffective, as he committed seven double faults to give Rblev the edge. “For some reason, I had problems with my serve. I don’t understand why, because I was not having problems in the practices at all. But, today was one of those days that my serve was a disaster. Serving like this, the serve creates an impact on the rest of the game. When you serve with no confidence, you are just focusing on trying to serve, not thinking about how you want to [hit] the ball. You just think about what you have to do with the serve to put the ball in,” he concluded.

Earlier, on Thursday, reigning world number one Novak Djokovic of Serbia was knocked out in the pre-quarters by Great Britain’s Daniel  Evans, ranked 33. It was a straight-set defeat (4-6, 5-7) as the Serbian looks to prepare his best ahead of the French Open next month.

“To be honest, this has been probably one of the worst matches and performances from my side I can recall in the last years. I don’t want to take anything away from his win, but from my side, I just felt awful on the court overall. Just nothing worked. It’s one of those days,” reckoned Djokovic following the loss.