Rafael Nadal is the acknowledged king of clay.  If tennis was clay. Nadal would be the greatest of all time.  He puts more spin on the ball than any other player.  He’s quick, tenacious, and patient: three skills that are invaluable on clay.  He’s lost on clay fewer than 20 times, and most of it, at the start of his career.  When you think of other kings of clay, Borg, Vilas, and Wilander, well, they don’t match up with Nadal.

Nadal is nowhere more comfortable than at Monte Carlo where is 7-time defending champ.  Nadal was worried about whether he could play.  He dropped out of the Miami semis against Andy Murray, but maybe he wanted to preserve his chance to win the Monte Carlo title for an eighth time.

He would have had a similar streak in Barcelona had he not, two years ago, opted not to play Barcelona.  Nadal normally plays four clay court events ahead of the French: Monte Carlo, Barcelona, Madrid, and Rome.  Of course, over the years, Madrid had been replaced by Hamburg as the Masters 1000 event.

But he now faces his greatest challenge: Novak Djokovic.  Djokovic had been dealing with a personal issue of his own: his grandfather’s death.  But Djokovic is the number one player in the world.  Last year, Djokovic had a win streak from the start of the year.  He won Indian Wells.  He won Miami.  Both titles over Nadal.  They say the proof is in the pudding, so the proof, for Nole, was beating Rafa on clay.

Last year, Djokovic skipped Monte Carlo and opted to start his clay season on home soil: at Belgrade.  He won that event, and would meet Nadal in successive finals at Madrid and Rome and did something he, and few others, have ever done: beat Nadal on clay.  And that was when you knew his streak was meaningful.  Novak would, alas, be unable to win the clay title that meant the most: the French Open, when GOAT, Roger Federer, knocked him out of the semis at Roland Garros.

Djokovic also has a streak.  He’s beaten Rafa 7 times in a row.  The last time was in Melbourne where Rafa had a break up in the fifth set, but immediately surrendered the break, then lost another serve to lose to Nole once again, in the longest finals of Australian Open history.

So now, we ask, can Rafa beat Nole?  I’m inclined to pick Djokovic.  A win streak is a win streak.  Even if Djokovic isn’t 100% due to a recent loss, he would have lost already if that was bothering him.  Djokovic is, at the very least, going to try to honor the memory of his grandfather by winning.  Nadal is trying to get into a positive frame of mind.  He wants to believe the pressure is all on Djokovic, that he has nothing to lose.  But he does have something to lose.  As 7 time defending champ, a loss would mean that his claim to the mantle of king of clay might be loosening.  That would be tough for him, especially leading to Roland Garros.

Andy Murray, once again, had struggles on clay.  He lost to Tomas Berdych who beat him at Roland Garros as well back in 2010 en route to a semifinal finish.  Roger Federer opted to skip Monte Carlo as he often does.

So with Nadal’s straight set victory over Gilles Simon and Djokovic’s 3-set victory over Tomas Berdych, we’re to the final everyone expected.  And we’ll see whether Nadal can muster the toughness to beat the world number one.