By Julien Pretot
MONTE CARLO, April 22 - Roger Federer still enjoys
playing Rafael Nadal even though he has now lost his five
meetings against the Spaniard on clay.
The world number one believes he improves on the slow
surface every time he takes on the double French Open champion,
who beat him 6-4 6-4 in the final of the Monte Carlo Masters
Series on Sunday.
"It's good for me to play against him. He sometimes makes me
improve my backhand. I think that problem is solved for me,"
Federer told reporters.
"Today I started to miss on the forehand but, look, again,
it can happen over a few minutes that you're going to have a
downfall on one of your shots.
"Again, you should try to avoid it, and that's going to make
you practise and make you a better player. I enjoy playing
against him and I think (it is) the same for him.
"We can improve playing against each other," added Federer,
who made 19 unforced errors on his forehand.
"Mistakes, (a) few too many, I guess. I'm not happy about
the performance of my forehand. Rarely it happens to me, because
it's my best shot in the game. I guess it's a bit different
against Rafael.
"You've got to keep on pushing and I just missed a few too
many to go a break down in the first set."
Federer was defeated by Nadal in last year's final in the
principality before being beaten at the Rome Masters Series. The
Swiss then handed Nadal his second French Open crown in Paris.
However, Federer had few regrets about Sunday's final.
"I should have used the chances when I had them early on,"
he said. "Unfortunately it turned around with a few mistakes.
But I feel this match gave me some information.
"I think I'm absolutely in the mix with him on clay, which
is how I wanted to feel.You know, it's always disappointing to
lose but I feel like I didn't play well and still it was close.
That's a good thing."