'I had a tough season in the last few years, but I've had better preparation this year, even with a tough start to the season'
World number one Rafa Nadal overpowered Frenchman Gael Monfils 6-1, 7-5 to win the Japan Open on Sunday to cap a week of "Nadal Fever" in Tokyo.
Favourite Rafael Nadal must negotiate a tricky path in his bid for a fifth French Open title following Friday's draw for the claycourt grand slam starting on Sunday.
Stanislas Wawrinka held firm in a match of high drama to defeat an injured Rafa Nadal 6-3, 6-2, 3-6, 6-3 and win the Australian Open on Sunday.
Greek teenager Stefanos Tsitsipas slayed another tennis giant on Saturday, saving a match point as he toppled big-serving Kevin Anderson 6-7(4), 6-4, 7-6(7) in a thriller to set up a Rogers Cup final against top seed Rafael Nadal.
Novak Djokovic is all that stands between Rafa Nadal and his official crowning as one of the game's greatest all-round players.
The Briton, who was thrashed 6-3 6-1 by the Croatian in the Dubai Championships in 2015, performed poorly in the first set and after recovering in the second he then surrendered his serve in the seventh game, giving Coric three break points.
The 29-year-old Spaniard, who needed a final-set tiebreak to fight past Lukas Rosol in the first round, produced a performance of defiant persistence to fend off the challenge of the 24-year-old Dimitrov.
Defending champion Rafael Nadal thrashed Austrian fifth seed Dominic Thiem 6-0, 6-2 to reach the semi-finals of the Monte Carlo Masters for a record 14th time on Friday.
Saturday's match between Djokovic and Nadal will be the 50th between the two great rivals, who have won a combined 26 Grand Slam titles.
Nadal avenged his defeat to the 20-year-old Greek at the same stage of the Madrid Open a week ago
Images from Monday's action at the French Open.
Rafael Nadal's return to action came to a shuddering halt on Friday when the Spaniard was beaten by Slovakia's Martin Klizan in a late-night quarter-final duel at the China Open.
World number one Rafael Nadal set up a semi-final showdown with fellow-Spaniard Fernando Verdasco after subduing France's Gilles Simon 6-2 7-5 7-5 at the Australian Open on Wednesday. Verdasco advanced to his first Grand Slam semi-final after beating Jo-Wilfried Tsonga of France 7-6, 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 earlier in the day.
Rafael Nadal is the closest he's been to world number one Roger Federer in the ATP Rankings.
The Spaniard beat Andy Roddick 6-4, 6-3 to reach his first final since Wimbledon 2006.
Roger Federer, who beat Nadal to claim the ATP World Tour Finals for the fifth time with a show of force, described Rafael Nadal's season as one any player "could only dream of".
Factbox on Rafael Nadal, who beat Novak Djokovic 6-0, 6-2, 7-5 on Sunday to win a record-extending 13th French Open title:
Nadal's victory meant that the top 16 men's seeds advanced to the third round for the first time in a Grand Slam.
Having achieved the glittering distinction of becoming the only man to win eight singles titles at the same Grand Slam tournament, French Open champion Rafa Nadal was soon dreaming of another priceless thing on Sunday -- to be left alone.
The second seed Spaniard won an epic clash the Briton to enter the Australian Open quarter-finals.
Top-seeded Spaniard Rafael Nadal plans to step up his intensity when he bids for a place in the third round of the US Open on Thursday. The newly crowned world number one, looking to win his third grand slam title of the year, was below his best in the opening round but promised to up his game when he faces American qualifier Ryler De Heart, ranked 261.
Nadal, whose last grasscourt final came at Wimbledon in 2011, has dropped to 10th in the ATP rankings after a difficult year in which he has won only a single title.
Twelfth seed Djokovic resumed two sets to one ahead after snatching a third-set tiebreak the previous night before Wimbledon's 11pm curfew left the match on a knife edge.
World number one Rafael Nadal has been laid low by flu this week but Andre Agassi is confident the illness will not scupper the Spaniard's chances of winning the Australian Open later this month.
Rafael Nadal struggled past Japanese teenager Kei Nishikori at the Queen's Club, winning 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 to reach the quarter-finals.
Rafael Nadal ended Andy Roddick's bid for a record fifth title at Queen's by charging into the final with a 7-5, 6-4 win.
Fourth seed Rafa Nadal was stunned by Serb Viktor Troicki in an upset-filled Shanghai Masters second round on Wednesday while Andy Murray breezed past American Steve Johnson and Nick Kyrgios slumped to a listless defeat. Troicki, ranked 31st in the world, overcame Nadal 6-3 7-6(3) in an hour and 34 minutes to secure his first ever victory in five previous attempts against the 14-time grand slam winner. The unseeded Serb broke twice to seal the opening set before Nadal came back strongly in the second. The Spaniard saved a match point at 5-4 down but was defeated in the tiebreak.
Rafael Nadal defeated world number one Roger Federer 6-1, 6-3, 6-0 to win his fourth straight French Open title.
World number one Roger Federer reached his third consecutive French Open final when he beat France's Gael Monfils 6-2, 5-7, 6-3, 7-5 on Friday.
Rafael Nadal has no timeline for his return to competitive tennis but on Tuesday the world number four did not completely rule out the possibility of returning from injury in time for next month's Davis Cup and ATP World Tour finals.
"But if you need a reminder of who he is, just look at his career stats and grand slams that he won."
Rafa Nadal arrives at Roland Garros without his air of invincibility as the seemingly unstoppable Novak Djokovic threatens to flatten the Spaniard's bid to equal Bjorn Borg's six French Open titles.
Images from Friday's Australian Open men's singles second semi-final between Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer.
Images from the US Open final played at Flushing Meadows on Sunday
The sixth-seed from Ecuador saved five match points to defeat Spanish teenager Rafael Nadal.
Rafael Nadal roared into the semi-finals of the ATP World Tour Finals in London on Friday with a 7-6, 6-1 defeat of Czech Tomas Berdych who later accused the Spaniard of intimidating the umpire.
Nikolay Davydenko won the Sony Ericsson title with a 6-4, 6-2 victory over Spain's second-seeded Rafael Nadal.
Rafael Nadal, the king of clay won his 11th French Open title on Sunday.
There was no rain break, no twilight five-set drama and no Wimbledon trophy on offer on Friday but none of that bothered ageless Swiss maestro Roger Federer. The only thing that mattered to the 20-time Grand Slam champion was that, unlike in his last grasscourt duel with Rafael Nadal 11 years ago, he had won the "crazy last game" which sealed his passage into a 12th Wimbledon final.
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