| MUMBAI:
World No1 Rafael Nadal will be aiming for a record fifth straight Monte-Carlo
Rolex Masters title, and his unprecedented quest will be live and exclusive on
Ten Sports, the most watched sports channel in the Sub-continent.
The Spaniard,
who has a 24-1 record in the principality, will have his task cut out though,
as the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tournament features nine of the top 10 ranked
players in the world, including Roger Federer, who lost in the final last year
to Nadal, No3 Novak Djokovic, and the red-hot Scotsman, world No4 Andy Murray.
Nadal, who
has a 13-4 career record in ATP World Tour Masters 1000 finals, defeated Federer
7-5, 7-5 for the 2008 title at the Monte-Carlo Country Club. The Spaniard became
the first player to win four straight Monte-Carlo titles since New Zealand’s
Anthony Wilding from 1911-1914. Ten
Sports will telecast the semi-finals and final of the tournament. The coverage
of the semi-finals begins Saturday, April 18, from 5:00 pm IST onwards, while
the final will start at 5:30 pm IST on Sunday, April 19.
Federer,
currently No2 in the world, will be looking to capture his first ATP World Tour
title since October 2008 at Basel. The Swiss maestro has finished runner-up thrice
in Monte-Carlo. Third
seed Djokovic captured his 12th ATP World Tour title in Dubai in February and
finished runner-up at an ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tennis tournament in Miami,
where he lost to Murray in the final. Murray
is just 170 points behind Djokovic in the ATP Rankings, and a good show in Monte-Carlo
is sure to lift him to No3 in the world. Murray is 26-2 this season, with ATP
Tour titles at Doha (beat Andy Roddick in the final), Rotterdam (defeating Nadal)
and Miami. He also finished runner-up at Indian Wells, where he lost to Nadal.
Also in the
high-quality field are the fifth seed Juan Martin del Potro of Argentina, sixth
seed Gilles Simon of France, seventh seed Fernando Verdasco of Spain, and No8
Nikolay Davydenko of Russia. | 