I guess it’s safe to say that Nadal is back, at least on clay.

Nadal has been called the king of clay with good reason.  He’s lost only 20 matches on clay in his entire career, and in the past few years, with the odd exception of his recent loss to Horatio Zeballos, he’s never lost a final to anyone except Federer and Djokovic.  He has lost in earlier rounds to other players, such as Verdasco on the blue clay.

Nadal had to fend off a hard hitting Almagro in the semifinals.  He knew he wouldn’t have to face that kind of power against Ferrer.  But with Nadal hitting so well, Ferrer felt the need to hit hard as well, and this lead to a flurry of errors.  Before he knew it, he was down 6-0.  Now it’s not like all the games were blowouts.  Many went to deuce and Ferrer even had a break point, but whenever he needed a point, it seemed Ferrer hit the ball long, wide, or into the net or Nadal made a winning shot.

Ferrer lost the first two games of the second set before he finally held serve.  True to Ferrer’s workman-like nature, he did not celebrate, but just kept on playing.  In any case, Ferrer was broken again, and only held serve one more time.  Nadal closed the match out 6-2 in the second set.

Ferrer is the three time defending champ, but Nadal hadn’t played this event since 2005 and he may avoid it next year as the surface is expected to change to hard courts.

Nadal will pick up 500 points while Ferrer will lose 200 points and should gain 700 points on Ferrer and try to close in to the number 4 ranking.

Next week is Indian Wells, the first Masters 1000 event of the year.  Nadal is still expected to play.  Murray will make his return.  Djokovic and Federer are playing too though Federer is expected to skip Miami and Nadal may join him there.