Watch Nadal: The Ultimate Clay Challenge

Watch ATP World Tour stars, including Andy Murray, Novak Djokovic, Stan Wawrinka and Marin Cilic, reflect on Rafael Nadal’s clay-court success and his quest for a 10th title at the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters this week.

• Rafa Mr. April: Nadal’s most productive month is April with 17 of his 69 career titles followed by May (12), June (11) and July (7). After play on 21 April 2017, Nadal has a 60-4 career record in Monte-Carlo with a tournament record nine titles. He won eight titles in a row from 2005-12 and his 46-match winning streak ended with a runner-up in 2013. Last year he won his ninth title (d. Monfils).

Nadal comes in with a 19-5 match record on the season with three runner-up showings: Australian Open (l. to Federer), Acapulco (l. to Querrey) and ATP Masters 1000 Miami (l. to Federer). This is the sixth time since 2005 that Nadal enters Monte-Carlo without an ATP World Tour title on the season. In the five previous times he captured his first title of the year in Monte-Carlo: 2008, 2010-11-12 and last year. Nadal, who compiled a 21-4 clay court record last season with titles in Monte-Carlo and Barcelona, has the best clay court winning percentage (.915) in the Open Era. His first match was the 400th of his career on clay (365-34).

• Clay Court Titles List: Nadal is currently tied with Guillermo Vilas for the most clay court titles in the Open Era (since 1968):
No.
1) Rafael Nadal 49
Guillermo Vilas 49
3) Thomas Muster 40
4) Bjorn Borg, Manuel Orantes 30