Rafael Nadal didn't give Alexander Zverev the birthday gift he desired the most on Thursday at the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters, with the Spaniard scoring a commanding 6-1, 6-1 third-round victory in 69 minutes.
The Spanish superstar did little wrong against the 20-year-old #NextGenATP German as he improved to 60-4 lifetime at the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tournament, where he is attempting to lift a 10th trophy. Memories soon disappeared of Nadal's struggle to beat Zverev at the Australian Open in January, as the fourth seed won nine straight games from 1-1 in the opener. He lost nine service points in total, wrapping up his 21st match win of the year after Zverev hit his first double fault.
Nadal has a 367-34 clay-court match wins record, a with the best winning percentage (.915) of any player in the Open Era.