Monte Carlos Masters: Rafael Nadal victorious over Lucas Pouille in opener

Nadal won 6-2, 6-1

Rafael Nadal celebrates his win in Monte Carlo (GETTY IMAGES)

The idea of Rafael Nadal changing any of his routines might be about as fanciful as the government here adopting a socialist manifesto, but the Spaniard has taken the plunge and started playing with a new racket.

Nadal opened his Monte Carlo Masters campaign yesterday with an emphatic 6-2, 6-1 victory over France’s Lucas Pouille and revealed afterwards that he had changed his weapon of choice. The world No 5 is still playing with a Babolat “connected” racket, which has in-built sensors to give downloadable information on every shot he hits, but has swapped his AeroPro Drive for a prototype version of the Play AeroPro Drive which the French manufacturer has developed for him.

“We were thinking about it before the start of the season, but there was not enough time,” Nadal said. “The rackets are ready now and I practised with them in Majorca after I came back from Miami.

“It’s a bit of a change. I really haven’t changed my racket for a very, very long time, since I don’t remember when. It’s a change to try to have little bit more spin. The holes between the strings are a little bit bigger than on the other racket. We decided to change the racket to try to increase the spin a little bit.

“It’s true that with this new racket I probably have less control, though I did not feel that today. In theory I have less control but more power and more spin. There is always a risk when you change things, but I like the racket. I will continue playing with it.”

Nadal has been struggling to find his best form, having won only one minor title in the last 10 months, but hit the ball consistently well in his first match of the European clay-court season. The world No 5 won in just 68 minutes and did not face a single break point.

Fifteen of the 16 seeds are through to the last 16, which is a record for a Masters Series tournament. Roger Federer had few problems, crushing France’s Jeremy Chardy, who had beaten him in their only previous encounter on clay in Rome last year, 6-2, 6-1. “I thought I served well, had a high first-serve percentage and was able to control the baseline,” Federer said.

Milos Raonic and Nick Kyrgios will both make their debuts at the Aegon Championships at Queen’s Club this summer. They join a strong line-up that includes Nadal, Andy Murray, Stan Wawrinka, Marin Cilic and Grigor Dimitrov.