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Rafael Nadal won his 33rd straight match at the Monte Carlo Masters on Wednesday, defeating Jarko Nieminen, 6-2, 4-1 in their second-round match. The Spaniard hasn't lost at the tournament in eight years.

A few facts about Nadal's historic winning streak:

1. His last (and only) loss at the tournament came to Guillermo Coria on April 17, 2003. Nadal had to qualify to reach the tournament and entered the match ranked No. 104. He defeated No. 7 Alberto Costa in the second round (the biggest win of his career up until then) before dropping the third-rounder in straight sets to the 26th-ranked Coria.

2. Nadal got revenge for the defeat, beating Coria in the next two Monte Carlo tournaments in which he played (2005 and 2006).

3. During the win streak, Nadal has defeated players ranked Nos. 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9. The only single-digit rank he hasn't bested in his Monte Carlo career? No. 2, a position he held for much of the run.

4. Nadal defeated No. 1 Roger Federer in three straight

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Rafael Nadal isn't expecting a repeat of last year's historic sweep of the clay court season.

Speaking to reporters at the European clay court opener in Monte Carlo, the world No. 1, who was a perfect 22-0 on the surface last year, says he thinks another sweep isn't in the offing for 2011:

"What I did last year, winning Monte Carlo, Rome, Madrid and Roland Garros, was historic. I don't think that I can do it this year. It didn't happen in 50 or 60 years. So I guess I can't do the same two times in a row."

You know what that is? Loser talk. Rafa is intentionally setting the bar low so he'll have no trouble leaping over it. It's like when I got a really low GPA my first semester in college in order to set myself up for success later. After that, I had no trouble raising it every successive term. Rafa is making it acceptable for himself to fail. No wonder he only has nine Slams.

Oh, I'm kidding. He's not doing any of that, of course. He's Rafa, one of the most humble athletes of this

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You can take Wimbledon and Roland Garros and Key Biscayne. Enjoy Barcelona and Sydney. If I could only attend one more tennis tournament in my life, I'd be packing my bags for Monte Carlo. With the water, the mountains, the gambling and the off-chance of picking up Grace Kelly in a casino while defending my name from cat burglar accusations, there doesn't seem to be a finer place to be in tennis:

The ATP 1000 tournament began this weekend in the capital and some of the pictures on the Getty and AP wires are breathtaking:

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Rafael Nadal is seeking his seventh-straight title at the clay court event. Without Novak Djokovic in the field, he's an even more prohibitive favorite than usual.

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They may have to make that plaque a little bigger.

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The Tennis Channel will provide live coverage of the event through Sunday.

wozniacki wins charleston 11Game Point is Busted Racquet's roundup of facts, figures and links from around the web.

Love -- Charleston, S.C. always seems like an odd place to begin the Eurocentric clay court season but Caroline Wozniacki doesn't mind. She earned her first Family Circle Cup title on Sunday, defeating Elena Vesnina 6-3, 6-2. The world No. 1 has come close to winning in Charleston before, losing in the finals in 2009 and making it to the 2010 semis before turning her ankle. This is her third tournament victory of the year and establishes her as the early favorite to win in Roland Garros. (Especially with Kim Clijsters' injury.)

15 -- If Wozniacki is hot, Victoria Azarenka may be a little hotter. The world No. 5 won her second straight title this weekend in Spain after cruising through the field at the Andalucia Tennis Experience. Azarenka followed up her win in Key Biscayne with a dominant performance, never dropping more than three games in a set at the tournament.

30 -- It was a win-win for

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A tip for all women's tennis players: Don't go to Western Europe and expect to make it out healthy.

For the second time in nine months, a top-ranked women's player suffered a freak accident in a Western European country that will force her to miss a major part of the tennis season. Serena Williams stepped on a piece of broken glass before an exhibition match in Munich last July and hasn't been on the court since. Recently, Kim Clijsters was dancing at the wedding of her nephew and turned her ankle, an injury which could force her out of next month's French Open.

Clijsters revealed the news on her website (translated from Dutch):

At the wedding party of her cousin Tim, Kim injured her ankle severely. The consequences are rather dire. After a visit to the doctor, echo and NMR the diagnosis is a severe strain of both the medial and lateral ligaments of the right ankle and a torn ligaments, a torn capsule of the ankle joint, a hematoma and torn tendon sheath.

The statement goes on to say

mcenroe knicks game

John McEnroe is back in the tabloids for controversial behavior, this time because the irrepressible bad boy ... talked loud at a restaurant?

Page Six has the breathless report:

John McEnroe annoyed fellow diners at Recipe, on the Upper West Side, Tuesday night by loudly recounting tales of his tennis glory days. The court legend entertained his wife and two friends with stories of "beating Bjorn Borg " and other victories. "He was several decibels louder than the average restaurant noise. It was obnoxious," said a spy.

If talking loud at a restaurant is bad boy behavior, then my dad is James Dean.

It'd be bigger news if McEnroe went to a restaurant and didn't talk loudly about Bjorn Borg. What's most surprising is that the old tennis champ wasn't boasting about that time he partied with The Rolling Stones.

And you know what's more obnoxious than McEnroe's alleged offense? Someone calling up Page Six to complain about it.

In a new advertisement for Head Tennis, Novak Djokovic volleys with a partner on the wings of a biplane. CGI trickery or a daredevil, World War I-style stunt?

Do you even have to ask? It's doubtful that Djokovic would even get in one of those planes, let alone stand on a wing as it flies in the air. The special effects are solid but we doubt that the ball would stay aloft long enough for a rally, Newton's third law or not.

The ad featuring the world No. 2 has been seen by over 200,000 people on YouTube since its release.

Playing tennis on the wings of a flying airplane has been done before, most famously in the 1925 picture below. The accompanying caption identified the players as Ivan Unger and Gladys Roy. I'm guessing that Kimiko Date-Krumm was the pilot.

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Djokovic is 24-0 in 2011 and has won his last 26 matches. Sounds like Novak is  *puts on sunglasses* flying high. YEAAAAH!

Thanks to the third, fourth and fifth-graders at Wayside Elementary for helping me on this post during the