Nadal to provide Felgate's formula

As the 16-year-old Rafael Nadal, from Majorca, takes his place in the world top 100 next week after his breathtaking debut at the Monte Carlo Open, the Lawn Tennis Association will prepare to highlight its latest endeavours to lift the British game from its torpor.

Nadal fought his way through the qualifying tournament to become one of 13 Spaniards in the 64-strong main draw of the Masters Series event here. He then startled some 200 late-night Centre Court spectators and the tennis world at large by eliminating his compatriot Albert Costa, the French Open champion, in straight sets to advance to the last 16.

Having accomplished this with an impressive range of pounding groundstrokes, deft touches, speedy movement and poise, the vigorous left-hander began to wilt yesterday and dropped sets for the first time in the tournament. He was defeated by Guillermo Coria, of Argentina, 7-6, 6-2.

Talented youngsters with a mature outlook, such as Nadal and Richard Gasquet, the French prospect, 15 weeks his junior, who made his debut here last year, are not the norm, even in nations where the game flourishes. Britain struggles to find players with natural ability and nurture them through the intermediate stage of their careers. The LTA may never aspire to have 13 players in the main draw of a Masters Series event, but one of the points David Felgate, the national governing body's new director of performance, will insist upon is the work ethic that turns promise into championship potential. He will emphasise that players like Nadal and Gasquet thrive on hard training, on and off the practice courts.

Even on an afternoon when fatigue from his previous battles prevented Nadal from showing his best form to 7,000 spectators in yesterday's sunshine, he still managed to push Coria for a set. As against Costa, Nadal had to recover from an early break of serve. He also came back after being broken a second time, and Coria twice served to save the set and force the tie-break.

The match was virtually won and lost, however, when Coria took the tie-break, 7-3, after 57 minutes. The Argentinian then played with greater consistency and capitalised as Nadal began to lose his rhythm. Coria is, after all, one of the finest clay-court players in the game.

In today's quarter-finals, Coria will play a compatriot, Juan Ignacio Chela. It will be their third meeting, each having beaten the other last year. Before that, both players served suspensions after testing positive for nandrolone.

The seeds left are two Spaniards, Juan Carlos Ferrero and Carlos Moya, last year's finalists. Ferrero, the defending champion, overcame Gaston Gaudio, of Argentina yesterday, and now plays his compatriot Alberto Martin, a qualifier. Moya plays Julien Boutter, a French wild card who last Sunday won his first tournament, in Casablanca, at the age of 29.

* Greg Rusedski has pulled out of next week's Barcelona tournament after a knee operation last month. Pete Sampras has dropped out of next week's US Clay Court Championships.