David Goffin has broken back into the Top 10 of the Emirates ATP Rankings for the first time since February as a result of a semi-final run at the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters.

The World No. 10 climbs three places courtesy of his impressive back-to-back three-set triumphs over Dominic Thiem and Novak Djokovic, before eventual champion Rafael Nadal ended his pursuit of the title.

Firmly cementing himself inside the Top 8 for the Emirates ATP Race to London (No. 4), Goffin is an emerging candidate to qualify for the ATP Finals for the first time, should he keep up his strong form. Read Monte-Carlo Final Report .

Diego Schwartzman is up to a career-high ranking following a first ATP World Tour Masters 1000 quarter-final appearance in Monte-Carlo. The Argentine moves up seven spots to No. 34 having clinched victories over Bernard Tomic, Roberto Bautista Agut and then Jan-Lennard Struff, before a spirited 6-4, 6-4, loss against Nadal.

View Latest Emirates ATP Rankings

Jan-Lennard Struff was another player to shine in the Principality of Monaco, edging back towards the Top 50.

The German qualified for the main draw in Monte-Carlo and then ousted eighth seed Grigor Dimitrov from a set down en route to the third round (l. Schwartzman).

Struff’s Monte-Carlo form backs up his third-round showing at the Miami Open presented by Itau (l. Delbonis) and a quarter-final (l. Kohlschreiber) spot at the Grand Prix Hassan II earlier this month to move up to World No. 52.

Yen-Hsun Lu enjoyed victory at his home tournament to lift the 2017 Santaizi Challenger trophy and rise up eight positions to World No. 55. Lu clinched his unrivalled 24th ATP Challenger Tour level title with a 6-1, 7-6(4) triumph over Tatsuma Ito.

Janko Tipsarevic retained his title at the International Challenger China 2017 Qingdao without dropping a set to move up 18 places to World No. 71. The Serbian has now won three ATP Challenger Tour titles in 2017.

Read More From This Week’s ATP Challenger Tour Spotlight

#NextGenATP player Frances Tiafoe clinched the 2017 Elizabeth Moore Sarasota Open (Florida, U.S.A.) to earn a 15-position climb to a career-high ranking at World No. 72. The American lifted a third Challenger title with a 6-3, 6-4 victory over countryman Tennys Sandgren to surge to fifth in the Emirates ATP Race to Milan.

A LOOK BACK
China International Challenger Qingdao 2017 (Qingdao, China): Janko Tipsarevic remains unbeaten on the ATP Challenger Tour in 2017, having retained his title in Qingdao. The Serbian second seed clinched his 14th Challenger crown with a 6-3, 7-6(9), victory over qualifier Oscar Otte to move to 15-0 for the season at the level. Tipsarevic’s reward for a third Challenger trophy in 2017, winning 30 of 31 sets this campaign, is an 18-place rise to No. 71 in the Emirates ATP Rankings.

The former World No. 8 needed seven match points to fend off the resilient Otte, who enjoyed a breakout week in China.

Heading into the tournament, Otte had only won one match on the ATP Challenger Tour, but stormed into the semi-finals to the loss of just four games. There, he navigated past #NextGenATP Frenchman Quentin Halys 7-5, 6-4, to reach his maiden Challenger final. As a result, Otte gained more than 100 spots to secure a career-high ranking of World No. 263.

.@TipsarevicJanko successfully defends his title in Qingdao, needing seven match points to edge #Otte 63 76(9). 14th #ATPChallenger title. pic.twitter.com/48VbbKnc1z

— ATP Challenger Tour (@ATPChallenger) April 23, 2017

2017 Elizabeth Moore Sarasota Open (Florida, U.S.A.): In 2015, Frances Tiafoe qualified for his first Challenger event in Sarasota. Fast forward two seasons and the American lifted a third Challenger title with a 6-3, 6-4 victory over countryman Tennys Sandgren.

A first clay-court trophy means Tiafoe is the fourth American to be crowned champion in 2017, joining Ryan Harrison (Dallas, U.S.A.), Noah Rubin (Launceston, Australia) and Sandgren (Tempe, U.S.A). The Sarasota triumph earns the 19 year old a career-high of No. 72 in the Emirates ATP Rankings and also sees Tiafoe become the second-youngest titlist of the year, at 19 years and three months, behind only Denis Shapovalov in Drummondville, Canada.

2017 Santaizi Challenger (Taipei, Taiwan): Local favourite Yen-Hsun Lu won an unrivalled 27th Challenger title at his hometown tournament. The 6-1, 7-6(4) victory over Tatsuma Ito in Sunday’s final means Lu has secured a Challenger title for the 14th consecutive season and boosts his ranking to No. 55.

Very happy to win the title at my home town @ATPChallenger tournament, thank you everybody for the support! #27 #TeamLu ? pic.twitter.com/6vQVy32OUd

— Rendy Lu (@LuRendy) April 23, 2017

WHAT THE PLAYERS SAID

Janko Tipsarevic: “I had a lot of expectations as I feel I’m playing a lot better than last year. I had some tough opponents here, so I’m extremely happy to defend my title without dropping a set.

“I felt I was more aggressive than him in the key moments,” added Tipsarevic, regarding his final victory over Otte. “I saw his other matches and I don’t think his opponents were putting enough pressure on him. When he’s dictating he’s very good, but when you take away his time, he panics a little bit. I think I played a very good match.

“If I am injury free, my goal for the end of the season would be around No. 30 in the rankings. I haven’t had a match victory since January, so winning the final like this, saving the match points, the stress, I feel it will give me huge confidence for the next tournament.”

Yen-Hsun Lu: “It’s a special feeling to win a title in your home town. You don’t get many chances to play at home, this means everything. I’m very happy and excited to take this trophy at home.”

A LOOK AHEAD

A clay-court treble makes up the schedule on the ATP Challenger Tour this week. The 2017 Kunming Challenger (Anning, China) has reigning champion Jordan Thompson playing as top seed for the $150,000 event.

Qingdao finalists Tipsarevic and Otte will hope to repeat their deep runs in Anning, while #NextGenATP players Quentin Halys and Akira Santillan face each other in the opening round.

The $75,000 Tallahassee Tennis Challenger (Florida, U.S.A) welcomes Sarasota champion Tiafoe as the top seed, who was a 2015 and 2016 finalist at the Forestmeadows Tennis Complex. #NextGenATP duo Denis Shapovalov and Stefan Kozlov also join the field.

Over to the Internazionali di Tennis d’Abruzzo (Francavilla, Italy) and World No. 108 Gastao Elias leads the charge for the €43,000 prize money. #NextGenATP prospect Matteo Berrettini will hope to make the most of a wild card on home soil during the inaugural event of this Challenger tournament.

View Draws & Watch Free Live Streams

ATP CHALLENGER TOUR ON TWITTER: The ATP Challenger Tour has launched a dedicated Twitter account for the latest news and information about players and events. Follow @ATPChallengerTour at twitter.com/ATPChallengerTour.

Rafael Nadal is a master illusionist.

He makes us think he dominates the longer rallies. He makes us focus on his athletic side-to-side movement. We see the “Spanish X” practice drill when he competes, moving up and back in the Deuce and Ad court, hitting a medley of forehands and backhands. It’s all just an illusion.

Rafael Nadal defeated Albert Ramos-Vinolas 6-1, 6-3 in the final of the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters on Sunday by dominating the short points en route to winning a record-setting 10th Monaco title in just 76 minutes.

You would naturally think that two Spanish clay-court specialists competing at sea-level on a cool, overcast afternoon would grind and grind, and grind some more. This match simply didn’t materialise that way.

There were 45 points (48%) played in the crucial 0-4 rally length, with Nadal winning 32 of them to just 13 for Ramos Vinolas. You can look deeper into the match stats to try and figure out what happened, but these numbers leap off the score sheet more than anything else.

When the rally ended between five and nine shots, Nadal was basically twice as good as his Spanish counterpart. Nadal won 18 points in this secondary rally length to just 10 for Ramos-Vinolas.

Clay-court tennis is simply not what it used to be. Owning the longer points used to be the domain of three-time Monte Carlo champion Bjorn Borg. Thomas Muster also won Monte Carlo three times in the ‘90s with the same bruising baseline strategy. Longer used to be the norm. Today’s clay-court game represents a different era – a game style focused on the front end of the point rather than the back.

Nothing more illustrates this new dynamic than Ramos-Vinolas only winning four games in two sets against Nadal, but winning the longer rallies of 9+ shots 12-8. Ramos-Vinolas said in his post-match interview about Nadal that “he is a little bit better in everything.” The statistics prove otherwise. Ramos-Vinolas was actually better in the longer points, but there were not enough of them to make an impact.

The Nadal forehand was the difference-maker, accounting for 12 winners while yielding just eight unforced errors. He was constantly looking to hit a run-around forehand in the Deuce court, turning a good backhand into a more explosive forehand.

What’s so interesting is that Nadal’s average groundstroke speed in the final was less than Ramos-Vinolas – 119km/h to 122km/h. Hitting a bigger ball is obviously just part of the overall equation. Nadal also ran more for the match (1499m to 1386m), highlighting that dictating the point does not directly equate to less movement.

Ramos-Vinolas desperately needed to have one of the best serve days of his life to be competitive with Nadal, but only managed to make 56 per cent of his first serves. Nadal made 76 per cent to create yet another area of influence. Nadal backed it up by winning 70 per cent of his second-serve points, to Ramos Vinolas’ 43 per cent.

Superiority in clay-court tennis is basically identical to that on hard or grass courts: dominate the short points and walk away with the silverware.