Italian tennis player Fabio Fognini won a historic victory on Saturday, beating Rafael Nadal in straight sets and ending the Spaniard’s hopes of winning the Monte Carlo Masters for the twelfth consecutive season.
Fognini, who had not had a good season until this week, won by 6-4 and 6-2 in just over an hour and a half of play.
Nadal, who before this match had 25 sets won in a row, was never comfortable in the game and the Italian was left with a disputed first set on a very windy day. But in the second set, Fognini did not give options to his rival.
With the score, 5-0 wasted three points for game and Nadal conquered two games in a row. Already in the eighth “game”, the Italian took his fourth opportunity to close the match.
In the final, Fognini will face Serbian Dusan Lajovic, who earlier on Saturday reached his first Masters 1000 final by defeating Russian Daniil Medvedev 7-5, 6-1. Lajovic went 3-0 quickly at the start of the game but his opponent recovered, despite which the Serbian finally managed to stay with the set after a tight 7-5.
The second set was dominated completely by Lajovic, against Medvedev who could not hold the pace. After taking advantage of 4-0 against an opponent that showed increasing frustration as the match progressed, the Serbian was left with the victory in his second match point.
