Rafael Nadal starts slow, but stills beats Gael Monfils for Monte Carlo Masters title

Rafael Nadal overcame a sloppy performance on his serve to beat Frenchman Gael Monfils 7-5, 5-7, 6-0 on Sunday and win the Monte Carlo Masters for the ninth time.

This was the Spaniard’s first tournament win in Monte Carlo since winning the last of his eight straight titles there in 2012. It is also the record-equaling 28th Masters title for Nadal, bringing him alongside top-ranked Novak Djokovic.

Nadal sank to his knees after sealing victory with a brilliant forehand winner. It took him 2 hours, 46 minutes to finally see off Monfils, who had never won a set against Nadal on clay and lost 11 of their 13 previous matches.

The fifth-seeded Nadal dropped his serve five times against the 13th-seeded Monfils in a topsy-turvy encounter in which they conceded 34 break-point chances between them.

Playing in his 100th career final, Nadal clinched his 68th title, his first this year and his first since winning on clay at Hamburg last August. It was his first Masters win since the Madrid Masters in 2014 and his biggest trophy success since his last French Open title later the same year.

Nadal’s previous final was in January, where he was routed by Djokovic in Doha.

But with Djokovic a surprise second-round loser here, Nadal’s toughest opponent was out of the way and, in a contest between two 29-year-olds with differing career trajectories, Monfils was rank outsider here.

Since they first played each other 11 years ago, Nadal has won 14 Grand Slams and Monfils has never even won a Masters title.

In their previous four contests on clay, Monfils had lost in straight sets and never taken more than three games off Nadal, dating back to their first-ever career encounter here in the second round in 2005.

That was the year of Nadal’s first win and, coming into this match, he had only lost a total of five sets in nine previous finals — two of those in losing to Djokovic three years ago.

France beats Netherlands, 3-2, to reach Fed Cup final

Caroline Garcia and Kristina Mladenovic beat Kiki Bertens and Richel Hogenkamp 4-6, 6-3, 6-3 in a decisive doubles match on Sunday as France rallied from 2-1 down against the Netherlands to win 3-2 and reach its first Fed Cup final in 11 years.

Two-time champion France, which lost to Russia in the 2005 final, will face the Czech Republic in November.

The Dutch will have regrets after Bertens beat Mladenovic 7-5, 6-4 in the opening reverse singles to improve her outstanding Fed Cup record to 15-1 in singles.

For the second reverse singles, Dutch captain Paul Haarhuis swapped out Hogenkamp and replaced her with Arantxa Rus, who had initially been scheduled to play doubles alongside Cindy Burger.

But Rus lost 6-3, 6-4 to Garcia as France leveled at 2-2.

Defending champion Czechs edge Swiss to reach Fed Cup final

Two-time defending champion the Czech Republic advanced to the Fed Cup final after edging Switzerland 3-2 on Sunday, sealing victory in a decisive doubles rubber against Martina Hingis and unheralded Swiss star Viktorija Golubic.

The 129th-ranked Golubic forced the decider with a second comeback win in singles, 3-6, 7-6 (6), 6-1 against Barbora Strycova.

Top-ranked doubles player Hingis and Golubic then lost 6-2, 6-2 against Karolina Pliskova and Lucie Hradecka.

Earlier, the 18th-ranked Pliskova put the Czechs 2-1 ahead beating No. 17 Timea Bacsinszky 6-4, 6-2.

Bacsinszky, the highest ranked player in the series, was well beaten in both her singles, winning only eight games. The Czechs will play their fifth final in six seasons against France or the Netherlands. They have won the other four.