Rafael Nadal thrashes Grigor Dimitrov after Novak Djokovic loses at Monte Carlo Masters

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Rafael Nadal needed little under an hour to get past Grigor Dimitrov in a one-sided contest and may have a clear path to glory at the Monte Carlo Masters after Novak Djokovic was defeated by Dan Evans. Djokovic and Nadal were on course to meet in Sunday’s final with the top two seeds looking in strong form in their opening matches.

Nadal has proven to be the king of Monte Carlo over the years, winning in 11 of the previous 15 tournaments.

Nobody has come close to matching Nadal’s record on the claycourts, but Djokovic has been a top performer on the surface over the years.

However, the world No 1 was surprisingly knocked out of the tournament on Thursday by Britain’s Dan Evans.

The British No 1 recorded the biggest win over his career, beating Djokovic in straight sets.

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Next on the court was Nadal and Dimitrov with the 29-year-old having a wretched record against the Spaniard.

And that continued on this occasion as well with Nadal quickly racing to a 4-0 lead in the first set.

Nadal’s variety of heights on his shots were proving no match for Dimitrov as he took the first set 6-1.

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The second set followed a similar pattern as well with Dimitrov looking dejected every time he returned to his seat.

The Bulgarian tennis star then let his frustrations get the better of him after the third game when he smashed his racket to piece on the court.

The result was soon a foregone conclusion as Nadal masterfully saw out the match.

Nadal now moves into the quarter-finals where he will face either Andrey Rublev or Roberto Bautista Agut.

Nadal conceded after the match that his win over Dimitrov was largely down to his opponent playing poorly.

“I’m sorry for him,” Nadal said.

“He played a bad match. He made a lot of mistakes and I was there.

“Today, it was more his fault than my good tennis.”

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