By Chris Oddo | Wednesday, April 16, 2014

 

Teymuraz Gabashvili got off to a hot start, but Rafael Nadal was much cooler at the finish of his 6-4, 6-1 victory in Monte-Carlo on Wednesday.

Rafael Nadal began a new winning streak at the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters on a chilly Wednesday afternoon, weathering an early tempest from Russian Teymuraz Gabashvili to prevail decisively, 6-4, 6-1.

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The victory is the 680th of Nadal's illustrious career, and it moves the Spaniard past Brian Gottfried and into sole possession of 12th place on the ATP's all-time win list.

Nadal had no answer for the scorching-hot start of Gabashvili in the opening games, as he immediately fell behind a break in the first game and didn't really hit his cruising speed until the sixth game when he broke Gabashvili to level the opener at 3-all.

By then, Monte-Carlo's famous Court Central had begun to tilt decidedly in favor of Nadal, as the Spaniard started to find his range more often, and Gabashvili lost his focus, too.

Nadal, who converted on all five break point opportunities he saw on the afternoon, used his second break to claim the first set, 6-4, ripping a backhand-down-the-line winner—one of 25 winners on the afternoon against only seven unforced errors—to seal the deal.

Nadal would pick up where he left off in the second set, punching another backhand-down-the-line winner past an approaching Gabashvili for a break and a 2-0 lead, then breaking again for 4-0 when a Gabashvili forehand went sinking into the net.

The fortitude and consistency of Nadal on his beloved red clay had by that time taken the life out of the world No. 58. Though Gabashvili would break back for 4-1 in the next game, he was, for all intents and purposes, done and dusted.

Nadal will move on to face Andreas Seppi of Italy in the third round. The Italian defeated Pablo Andujar on Wednesday, 7-6(5), 5-7, 6-4.

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Nadal will bid for his 300th career clay-court victory when he faces Seppi. Nadal passed another Spaniard, Emilio Sanchez, to move into 11th on the ATP's all-time clay-court leaderboard with today's win. His record on the surface currently stands at 299-21.

No. 10 on the list, Jose-Luis Clerc of Argentina, owns 301 wins on clay.