Fourth seed Rafael Nadal takes on 15th seed Albert Ramos-Vinolas in an all-Spanish Men's singles title match of 2017 Monte Carlo Masters on Sunday.
The world number seven is eyeing to become the first man in Open era to win 10 tournament titles and has been dominant enroute to the title match in the ongoing tournament. Nadal, who was on the verge of trailing 4-2 in the first set of his semi-final outing against David Goffin yesterday, made a remarkable comeback to take the match 6-3, 6-1 after an umpiring error denied the Belgian his second break.
On the other hand, Andy Murray-slayer Ramos-Vinolas has reached his first Masters 1000 final after edging past Frenchman Lucas Pouille in three sets yesterday.
Nadal, who is also chasing his 50th career clay court title, has slipped only once in the title match of Monte Carlo - against Novak Djokovic in 2013 - and went on to win last year's title even after not being in the best of forms.
With Roger Federer opting to sit out of most part of the clay season and Djokovic and Murray finding it hard to hit peak form early in the season, Nadal looks primed for a lot of success on the red dirt. His early-season exploits - runner-up finish at Australian Open, Acapulco and Miami Masters on hard courts - has given a lot of confidence and the positivity has been evident over the last few days in Monte Carlo.
On the other hand, Ramos-Vinolas, who is all set to break into the top-20 for the first time in his career, has been impressive in the ongoing tournament, beating two top-10 players - Murray and Marin Cilic - enroute to the title matches. After being 4-0 down in the decider, the way the southpaw fought back and ousted the world number one has spurred him on and it will be interesting to see whether he has the goods to put up a stiff fight against Nadal, who had beaten him in their two meetings in the past.
