BARCELONA — This is normally the time of year when Rafa Nadal comes into his own, honing his formidable claycourt skills in preparation for Roland Garros and leaving a trail of brutalized opponents to pick themselves up off the red clay.
Yet things have not gone to plan this season. While last year's injury woes seem to have passed, their legacy is a lack of form and a drop in confidence that have left him struggling for results.
Since hitting the big time in 2005, when he won the first of his record nine French Open titles, Nadal has never entered the fifth month of a season with only one solitary title -- that too a low key tournament in Buenos Aires where the highest ranked opponent he faced was world number 59 Federico Delbonis.