Rafael Nadal made his history yesterday as he clinched the Monte Carlo Masters for the eighth successive year - he is the only player in history to achieve such a feat.
Not only did the Spaniard continues his winning streak in Monte Carlo but he also brought his losing streak to Novak Djokovic to an end.
The world number one the last seven matches between their pair, their last encounter coming at the Australian Open at the beginning of the year.
But there was not to be an eighth defeat for Nadal as he was in command from the very start and seemed to cope with the difficult conditions much better than Djokovic.
Nadal broke the Djokovic serve in the third game of the opening set and from that point on he never looked back.
Nadal continued to put the Serb's serve under pressure in the first set as Djokovic had to fight off break points in the seventh game before surrendering the serve again in the ninth game.
And while everyone expected Djokovic to come roaring back in the second set it wasn't to be as Nadal picked up the pace to opening up a 4-0 lead.
The Spaniard did surrender one of those breaks in the fifth game but it only delayed the inevitable as he took the next two games to seal an impressive 6-3 6-1 victory.
Speaking to the ATP after the match Nadal said: "It's very important to break that situation. It's important to win a tournament another time. Especially [this] tournament.
"[Breaking] that situation [and] winning a Masters 1000, one of my favourites, [makes] everything perfect today."
This was the first title for Nadal since he won the French Open last summer. But the win sees him become the player with the most Masters titles under his belt with twenty - just one ahead of Roger Federer.
And Nadal will be back in action this week as he is set to defend his Barcelona Open crown.
FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw
by Helen Earnshaw
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