Nadal: ‘Rublev deserved to beat me, my serve was a disaster’

Rafael Nadal has admitted that Andrey Rublev deserved to beat him in the quarter-final of the Monte-Carlo Masters with his serve being a disaster.

Rublev powered his way to a fine 6-2, 4-6, 6-2 win on Friday, inflicting a rare clay court defeat on the Spanish ace.

After the match, Nadal was not in any mood to offer excuses and he thought the problems started with his serve.

“When you face a great player like him and you don’t play well, you should lose, no? That’s easy to analyse,” Nadal said after the match,

“For some reason, I had problems with my serve. I don’t know why because I was not having problems in the practices at all.

“But today was one of these days that my serve was a disaster. I fought. That’s the positive thing.”

Such is Nadal’s dominance at the Monte-Carlo Masters, Rublev is just the fifth man to beat the Spaniard at the tournament.

In the decider, Rublev held his nerve, breaking the Spaniard three times on his way to a famous win, his first in three meetings with Nadal.

“He played well, he deserved it more than me,” added Nadal.

“But you can’t expect to win against a player like him losing my serve, I don’t know how many times, six, seven times? It’s too much.”

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