It used to be a spring ritual.  When the tour headed to Europe on a 7 week clay excursion, most players were playing for second place.  Rafael Nadal would typically play four clay events heading into the French: Monte Carlo (an optional Masters 1000), Barcelona, Rome, and Madrid (this used to be Hamburg, until Hamburg got demoted and Madrid moved to clay after being an indoor event for years).  Last year, Rafa won 3 of 4 events and was a finalist in the only event he didn’t win (a loss to Federer in Madrid).

When Rafa won Monte Carlo for the sixth time, he decided that he didn’t want a replay of last year, where he went into the French with tendinitis in the knees, and shocking lost to Swedish upstart, Robin Soderling.  Rafa chose to skip Barcelona, where he had been five time champ, thus making sure another player would take the title this year.

The two finalists feature two late bloomers.  On the one hand, Fernando Verdasco was always known as a hard hitting lefty possessing one of the bigger forehands in the game.  Mentally, he’s not always been as solid as he could be, so he was always a solid top 20 player, but didn’t seem ready to take the next leap.  That changed in a Davis Cup match against Argentina where he prevailed in 5 sets over Jose Acasuso.  That confidence propelled him to a win over Andy Murray in 2009 and a semifinal match against Rafael Nadal, which was an epic five-setter that many hoped would lead to many more victories.

This was only partly true.  Verdasco became a guy that floated right around 10 in the ranking.  Lately, he’s learned to steady out his game some.  Few thought that clay would be his best surface, since his game seemed better suited to faster surfaces.  Even so, what Spaniard isn’t comfortable on clay?

Last year, the clay kings were Rafael Nadal (of course) and Novak Djokovic, with Roger Federer playing well at the end.  I refer only to the clay events leading to the French, as the French is really its own event.

This year, Nadal has resumed where he left off, taking Monte Carlo, despite not winning a title since Rome, and did so dropping the fewest games ever in Monte Carlo.  He beat Fernando Verdasco in the finals handily.

Verdasco, however, continued to play well in Barcelona making the finals.  He beat Richard Gasquet, Jurgen Melzer, Ernests Gulbis, Thomaz Bellucci, and David Ferrer to reach the finals.

Like Verdasco Robin Soderling is also something of a late bloomer reaching the top 10 in his mid 20s.  Soderling beat Juan Ignacio Chela, Feliciano Lopez, Eduardo Schwank, and Thiemo de Bakker.

This match went three sets, with Verdasco winning 6-3, 4-6, 6-3.  Soderling had a 4-1 head-to-head leading into the match, including two wins on clay.  However, Verdasco was able to turn that around to win his fifth career title and his second this year (the first was in San Jose).

Rome has already started early round play today and will continue throughout this week.  This should be the first tournament with all the healthy top players (minus Roddick) playing.  This includes Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, Andy Murray, Robin Soderling, Fernando Verdasco, Marin Cilic, and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga as the top 8 seeds.  Davydenko, del Potro are still out due to injury, and Andy Roddick chose not to play Rome.  Veterans are allowed one exemption a year without penalty from a required event.