It’s hard to fathom 7 times in a row.  With his tight victory over fellow Spaniard, David Ferrer, Rafael Nadal just won Monte Carlo seven times in a row.

There are “couldas and wouldas”.  Had Federer won Wimbledon 2008 then captured it in 2009, he would have 7 Wimbledons in a row.  He’s had 5 US Opens in a row.  Lendl made the finals of the US Open every year from 1982 to 1989, but only won it 3 times.  That was 8 consecutive finals, and for some of those years, especially early on, Connors and McEnroe were ranked higher.

But Rafa actually did it.  Had he played Barcelona last year, he’d be gunning for that record next week.

Andy Murray gave Rafa a brief scare, but a bum elbow and a resurgent attack made quick work of Murray in the third set of the semifinal encounter.

The only other player to have ever won 7 consecutive titles is Pancho Gonzales who won 7 US Pro Tennis Championships and that limited only to pros.  There were only a handful of pros back before the tour went Open so the competition was severely limited.  Maybe 20 pros at most could make a living at it and you had to be selected and promoted, a bit like how the circus was run, with pros going from city to city, and just to spice things up, they often altered the rules of tennis just to see what would happen.  Those were the barnstorming days of pro tennis which doesn’t look anything like today.

Ferrer has learned to at least give Nadal a run for his money, but unlike Murray, Nadal can dominate Ferrer using power.  Ferrer has just enough power to bully those much taller than him (he is a throwback to the 1970s where 5’10” was considered a tall player).

Nadal is scheduled to play Barcelona once again, which he skipped last year.

It’s unclear whether Murray will play Barcelona.  He is scheduled to, but his elbow bothered him for the first time and he needed a cortisone injection just to play in the semis.

In the meanwhile. Rafa still remains the king of clay.  It wasn’t the same dominant performance like last year, but then, he still did what he had to.

Next week, they play Barcelona.  The following week, they normally play Rome.  Instead, Munich, Serbia, and Estoril are all scheduled, then Madrid and Rome are scheduled back-to-back, then a week off, and the French Open starts.