Rafael Nadal's clay court season seems to be moving in the right direction again, after his victory at the weekend in Buenos Aires at the Argentina Open. Playing in the final against the local favourite Juan Monaco, the 28-year-old Spaniard was never in trouble against his opponent, coming through for a routine victory 6-4 6-1. In taking the title he took another record, as he equalled the 46 career clay-court titles on the tour that Argentinian Guillermo Vilas won during his successful Tennis days.
His nickname as "The King of Clay" is a fitting one for a player who has seemed almost untouchable on the surface, with nine French Open titles already under his belt, in a total of 14 Grand Slams in all across all of the surfaces.
At the Argentinian event, the main problem he had in the final was down to the weather conditions, with the start of play being delayed due to rain, and then a further delay occurring with the scores tied at 1-1 in the first set. After the delays, Rafa was soon able to get into his stride, requiring just the single break of serve in the seventh game to take the first set.
It became far easier in the second set, as three breaks of the Monaco service allowed him to move well clear on the scoreboard, taking the match in just under the hour and a half mark.
Nadal's win in the final was his 65th title from 93 finals on the tour in all, which moves him above Pete Sampras and Bjorn Borg to 5th on the all-time list on his own. He has had something of a barren spell in recent times, with the title in Buenos Aires being his first since lifting last year's French Open. Only last week it had seemed as though he might be losing his edge on clay, after losing in the semi-final to Fabio Fognini, so the Argentinian success should have helped to restore his confidence.
Victory in Argentina lifted Nadal back up to third in the world rankings, as Andy Murray slipped back to fifth, one place behind Japan's rising star Kei Nishikori. Nishikori was a beaten finalist in Acapulco, as David Ferrer continued his strong start to 2015 with the victory.