Rafael Nadal Learns, Burns Through Monte Carlo

I've said on here many times before that I think Rafael Nadal is, for all intents and purposes, done.  I said that he was a great talent, but one whose style of play would take an inevitably ruinous toll on his durability.  Nadal shone brightly, but he had burned out, never to reignite again like he had before.

But after his win in Monte Carlo last week, I am forced to reconsider.

Rafael Nadal won his sixth straight Monte Carlo Masters title in tremendous fashion, blowing through  fairly elite opposition with the flair and dominance he once possessed.  His win in the final, a 6-0, 6-1 drubbing of compatriot Fernando Verdasco, shows that not only can Nadal still win big titles, he can do it with a degree of efficiency that will be tremendously useful in keeping him rested and healthy.

Nadal seems to understand this as well, if his decision to skip this week's Barcelona event is any indication.  Nadal built up that 81-match win streak on clay that stretched from 2004 to 2007 mostly through playing in a bunch of smaller clay court events, but the part of his career that focused on quantity over quality has to be behind him if he is going to contend at the top of the game for any extended period of time.

Barcelona is the ATP stop closest to Mallorca, so it couldn't have been an easy decision to make, but it's certainly the right one.

Is Nadal back on top of the list of Roland Garros favorites? Probably.  But I'm waiting to see if he survives Rome and Madrid without breaking before making any real projections.