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MONACO. – Against the backdrop of the sparkling Mediterranean Sea, Rafael Nadal made more tennis history on Sunday – with the promise of even more as spring unfolds.

Nadal dusted No. 15 seed Albert Ramos-Vinolas 6-1, 6-3 to win the title at Monte Carlo and produce some big, round numbers. This was his:

l Record 10th Monte Carlo title

l Record 50th clay title

l 70th career title

Some context? With Rafa, it’s an elusive goal, because the things he’s doing on the dirt are unprecedented.

“King of Clay,” the moniker they usually roll out at times like this, almost doesn’t do what he’s doing enough justice.

Maybe we should go with the formal title of Albert the Sovereign Prince of Monaco, the man who presented Rafa the trophy: His Serene Highness.

Those 50 clay-court titles are a new record, breaking his tie that went back to last year’s win at Barcelona, with Guillermo Vilas.

Rafa has now played 404 matches on clay and won 370 of them. That’s a scintillating winning percentage of .916. He’s 63-4 (.940) in Monte Carlo. Before Sunday, no man in the Open era had ever won the same ATP event 10 times. And now he has a chance to do it three times in seven weeks.

He’ll try for No. 10 this week in Barcelona and, later, at the French Open in Paris. “Is really unbelievable, no?” Nadal said to the press afterward. “Win 10 times in such an important event like Monte Carlo is something difficult to describe the feeling. Yeah, is a little bit of luck; lot of things together should happen to make this 10th title in an event like Monte Carlo.

“I feel lucky to keep playing tennis, being healthy all those years, to compete in one of the most beautiful events of the year, without a doubt. Very happy to win another one. For me is a very important day in my career.”

Nadal was typically clinical against Ramos-Vinolas, who had previously never reached an ATP Masters 1000 quarter-final. Nadal served well and did not face a break point, and he managed to break his fellow Spaniard four times in eight service games.

The match was over in 76 minutes.

Ramos-Vinolas eliminated No. 1-ranked Andy Murray in the third round of the tournament. No. 2 Novak Djokovic exited after a quarter final loss to David Goffin. – ESPN.