Rafael Nadal will take on David Goffin on Saturday for a place in his 11th final in Monte-Carlo, where he has lifted nine trophies and has an incredible 61-4 match record.
Our champ has never met 10th seed Goffin on ATP tour [UPDATED: they played an exhibition match on a hard court in Abu Dhabi this past January – our champ won 6-4, 7-6(5)].
Date: April 22, 2017
Match time: Not before 3:30 PM local time / 9:30 AM EDT – New York, Montreal / 2:30 PM BST – United Kingdom / 3:30 PM CET – Spain, France, Germany, Italy / 11:30 PM AEDT – Melbourne. To convert to your local time, use this website.
Rafa on playing Goffin:
He’s a great player. He’s a player that is playing unbelievably well during the whole season. He is winning so many matches. I know he can win against everybody, and he knows it too. He’s more and more confident every time. I said last year that he can fight for the top position because he’s a very complete player on all surfaces. He can play well everywhere. That’s very important today.
Source: ATP World Tour
Know you’ll play your very best as you always do. Will be cheering you on – GO RAFA!!!
The Monte Carlo Masters 1000 trophy is in the bag! Vamos Rafa get 2 more 1 at Madrid and 1 at Rome so you will be the one to have the most masters 1000 titles in the open era..!
Nothing is ever in the bag in tennis. Goff is a highly dangerous opponent, and you never know about Ramos either. He took out Murray pretty easily.
Good luck and Vamos Rafa <3
Hehe it surprises me a bit that you guys didn’t knew they played at Abu Dhabi just several months ago. I mean every Rafa’s news is updated here (well, except for some news like a court is goi g to be named Rafa Nadal – guess what court and what tournament? :p)
Abu Dhabi is only an exhibition but don’t think players don’t really fight for the title. Only top players can play there and the format is “the winner takes it all”. It’s not very often that you are sure to have chances to play (get practice) them then take home some good $$$ if you can come out on top. Even if you don’t need it, you can surely still make some good use of it. So why not? 😉
Here’s the match:
Rafael Nadal beat David Goffin in the final of the Mubadala World Tennis Championship, winning 6-4 7-6.
It is the fourth time Nadal has won the tournament.
Goffin praised his opponent after the match, telling reporters: “He put so much intensity into every shot, he put a lot of pressure on me. You can feel how strong he is when he is in front of you.
“Mentally he is very impressive and he looks really strong to start the new season.”
Nadal now heads to Brisbane next week to continue his preparation for the Australian Open.
Is that you Vy? I ask because of the picture (same one Vy was using). I also wanted to ask if this is your group, i.e. you started it,run the online sites, write the articles etc.?
If so, thanks! It’s been great to have somewhere to post and hang with other Rafa fans during the clay …
Rafalite, sorry for the late reply. Yeah it was me. Probably Susie recognised me easily :p. And no I’m not the “authority” here whatsoever :D. I changed my avatar because the default one is just… dull. Plus I wanted to celebrate Rafa’s MC this year. 🙂
The avatar thing is actually very simple. Just log into your WordPress account, or create a new one if you haven’t had one yet. My user name was also changed because of that.
Cheers!
Oh sorry for the late reply, Rafalite. Yeah it was me. Probably Susie recognised me easily :p. And no I’m not the “authority” here whatsoever :D. I changed my avatar because the default one is just… dull. Plus I wanted to celebrate Rafa’s MC this year. 🙂
The avatar thing is actually very simple. Just log into your WordPress account, or create a new one if you haven’t had one yet. My user name was also changed because of that.
Cheers!
I don’t recall Mubadala being covered here; it’s not an ATP event.
I truly thought Rafa would have had a bataille royale here at MC because of their score at that exhibition match; David seems to have much improved since then.
RAFA ROCKS
Gen I’m unsure now. In rafa’s on court interview after his quarter final the interviewer said to rafa that he and goffin had never played before and rafa didn’t contradict him. That’s all I can add. Sorry
They only count ATP matches, but not exhibitions. I totally forgot about Doha, but Rafa did play Goffin in the final in January. Goffin had beaten Murray in the semis.
Or is it Dubai? I get them confused, but I do recall Rafa making positive comments on Goffin.
I believe Rafa didn’t correct him because Mubadala is not an ATP event. Rules may dictate whether or not he would have been able to even mention it. I believe it’s all about protecting “their [ATP] brand.”
RAFA ROCKS
Rafa has played against Goffin before at Abu Dhabi final, I think and won that match. It’s NOT an ATP tour match but it should count for experience and they have practiced together.
I was thinking, yeah they played against each other before. Correct me if I am wrong.
RAFA fan forever.
NO that’s wrong, unless it was an exhibition.
I looked up their H2H and it was 0.
Exhibitions don’t count, and for good reasons.
You are correct Gen as they played at the Abu Dhabi International Tennis Complex at end-December. The exhibition tournament is called the Mubadala World Tennis Championship. It was Rafa’s first return-from-injury tournament at the end of 2016.
RAFA ROCKS
He won’t beat you Rafa of that I am sure.