Nadal Eyes 4th Straight Monte Carlo Title, Federer Tough Draw

Nadal has a 17-match winning streak in Monte-Carlo, and won his first of nine career ATP Masters
Series titles at this tournament in 2005 when he unseated defending champion Guillermo Coria in
the final. He defended his title the last two years with victorious efforts against World No. 1 Roger Federer in the championship match.

Nadal became the first player to win three straight titles in Monte-Carlo since Ilie Nastase in
1971-73. The only other players to win the title three times in the Open Era are Thomas Muster (1992, '95-96) and Bjorn Borg (1977, '79-80). Over the past three seasons, the 21-year-old
Spaniard has won 107 of 110 matches on clay with 17 titles. His record 81-match winning streak on clay was stopped by Federer in last year's Masters Series Hamburg final.

Nadal is still in pursuit of his first title of 2008, his title drought dating back to last July at Stuttgart (d. Wawrinka). He has compiled a 22-6 season match record -- behind just Nikolay Davydenko (24-6) and James Blake (23-7) in terms of match wins -- with runner-up efforts in Chennai (l. to Youzhny) and at the Sony Ericsson Open in Miami (l. to Davydenko). He opens against the winner between Czech qualifier Ivo Minar and wild card Mario Ancic, and could meet two countrymen in the later rounds. No. 13 seed and former two-time champion Juan Carlos Ferrero (Nadal leads 5-1) is a possible third round opponent, and No. 5 David Ferrer (Nadal leads 4-3, including 3-1 on clay), last week's Valencia titlist, is seeded to meet him in the quarterfinals.

FEDERER BACK ON TITLE TRACK

World No. 1 Federer, the top seed in Monte-Carlo for the fourth consecutive year, ended his longest title drought in five years when he clinched the Estoril Open title on Sunday.

The Swiss began working with Jose Higueras, the coach to former Roland Garros champions Jim Courier and Michael Chang, in Estoril and will be accompanied again by the Spaniard this week.

"It's a good week for me to start off with," said Federer after winning his seventh career ATP title on clay. "I think [Higueras] is happy for me, he didn't confuse me and we'll be off together to Monaco for hopefully a good week there."

The last two seasons, the Swiss compiled a 32-6 clay court record en route to back-to-back runner-up
efforts at Roland Garros. Of Federer's six losses on clay, five came against Nadal.

Federer will open against Spanish qualifier Ruben Ramirez Hidalgo or Frenchman Gilles Simon and
the first seed he could face is No. 15 Ivo Karlovic. He could then meet No. 6 seed and long-time rival David Nalbandian in the quarterfinals (tied 8-8); the Argentine won their last two meetings in 2007 at the ATP Masters Series events in Madrid and Paris.
-- Courtesy ATP