It's good to be king, but Rafael Nadal has mixed reactions to his status as red-clay royalty.

The world No. 1 rampaged past Gael Monfils, 6-3, 6-1, to set up a Mutua Madrid Open third-round clash with Argentina’s Diego Schwartzman and extend his streak to 48 straight sets won on clay.

More: 48 And Counting For Nadal

Afterward, Nadal was asked how he feels about his "King of Clay" title and if he feels it overshadows his achievements on other surfaces.

The 10-time Roland Garros champion—the only player to win the same Slam 10 times—said he doesn't take the King of Clay tag seriously and doesn't feel it diminishes his triumphs on all surfaces.



"I really don't care much, first thing," Nadal told the media in Madrid with a chuckle. "Second thing, of course I achieved a lot on clay so I understand that.

"It doesn't mean that they don't appreciate the value of all the other things I did. You know, I won all four Grand Slams...I won a lot of tournaments on hard so no question about that. I really don't care much about this."

The 16-time Grand Slam champion has not lost a clay-court match since falling to Dominic Thiem in the Rome quarterfinals last year.

Nadal rides a 20-match clay-court winning streak into his showdown with Schwartzman, but says success does not alter his pre-match preparation.

"The process is very simple for me," Nadal said. "I analyze every day the things that happened and try to fix the things my team and me believe we need to keep improving and keep doing the things that are working very well.

"Every day is a different day. What happened the week before or two weeks ago is past. So we are just thinking about the match of today and now we are thinking about the match of tomorrow. That is the way we analyze things. I don't think if I had a lot of victories in a row, I think I have another tough match tomorrow. I am gonna go on court I can win or I can lose. Of course there are always things to improve and I got on court every day to make that happen."

Photo credit: Roland Garros