Roland Garros, the second major Grand Slam tennis event of the year has arrived! Over the past five years Rafael Nadal has dominated the event, winning the previous four years until he lost early in the 4^th round last year. That loss opened the door for Roger Federer to win his first French Open title. This year, it appears that the King of Clay is back. At 23 years of age, Nadal is looking like his spry old self. After healing and taking some timely breaks in his playing schedule, he appears to be back on form and amazingly, has even shown improvement in his game! He made it to two semi-finals in the first two Masters series tournaments, Indian Wells and Miami. Along the way while in Indian Wells, he and fellow countryman Marc Lopez won the men's doubles title as wild card entries!

However, it was not until the Monte Carlo tournament that everyone was convinced that Nadal was back to his imperious best. He entered the Monte Carlo Masters series event having previously won the last 5 years. On his way to the title he was able to dismantle three opponents, only giving up one game in each match. He dispatched three other Spanish players who usual fair very well on clay, Juan Carlos Ferrero, David Ferrer, and Fernando Verdasco. With this, his first tournament back on clay this season and with his current level of tennis, he has risen above everyone else. What makes this achievement even more amazing is that with this win, Nadal now has won the Monte Carlo Masters title for 6 consecutive years. This is an open era record for a specific tournament that no other player has achieved. If he can sustain this level of play, he is by far the favorite to regain the Roland Garros title.

This was just the beginning. A week later Nadal went on to win the Rome Masters title, beating David Ferrer in the final. He then took a week off skipping Barcelona, where he was the defending champion from last year. His last tournament before Roland Garros was the Madrid Masters; again he took the title beating Roger Federer 6-4, 7-6. They had not played against each other for an entire year, but Nadal was back to causing Federer fits on clay. Nadal is undefeated this clay court season at 15-0.

A Masters series event is the second highest tournament that a player can win. The first tier tournaments are the Grand Slams - Australia Open, Roland Garros, Wimbledon, and U.S. Open. Nadal now has won 18 Masters series events in his career. Andre Agassi previously held the record at 17.

Last year Nadal was beset by injuries in the middle of what could have been his best year. He suffered knee and abdominal injuries, which sidelined him for almost 4 months. The timing of his knee injury affected his performance in Roland Garros, and forced him to withdraw from Wimbledon, and the abdominal injury affected his play at the U.S. Open and the World Tour finals. This year, to guard against the risk of being injured again, Nadal has wisely modified his schedule. His tentative tournament schedule for the next 4 tournaments is:   

 

Currently, Nadal is back to number two in the world rankings, and has been able to win all the Masters series events on clay. If he performs well at Roland Garros and Wimbledon he will challenge Roger Federer for the world number one ranking. It will certainly be exciting to watch things unfold!