Mark Hodgkinson
Monte Carlo
April 14, 2024
This may be one of the most spectacular settings on the calendar, but Rafael Nadal was almost treating Court Central yesterday like a humble, pay-and-play park facility where all bookings are allotted an hour maximum. He was all done in exactly 60 minutes.
The boy wonder has always been an energetic player, rushing from one point to the next as though he were playing against the clock as well as his opponent, but the urgency and brutality of intent was totally compelling as he made his way into the third round of the Monte Carlo Masters. Xavier Malisse is experienced on clay, but this time he was the proverbial park-court hacker.
Nadal, an 18-year-old from Majorca known as "the Prodigy", dropped only nine points in the first set, took another breath and then zipped through the second for a 6-0, 6-3 victory over the Belgian that must have alarmed the rest of the players in Monte Carlo at the first major clay-court tournament of the season. He has long passed the 'star in the making' stage.
The leading performers followed each other on to Court Central in quick succession, but it was Nadal who really captivated. He has never played a match at Roland Garros, and is now a genuine contender for the French Open next month.
Nadal has all the physical gifts that he needs, with gargantuan top-spin forehands that had Malisse rocking back on his heels several feet behind the baseline, and he is starting to suggest that he has already acquired the mental abilities required to win a grand slam.
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