As Nadal stumbles, rivals see a crack in his invincibility

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It was unsettling to see Rafael Nadal suddenly looking like a flesh-and-blood earthling despite the clay beneath his feet this week. It was strange to see his wicked forehand hooks dip and miss their target, weird to watch him arrive late to the ball, and even weirder to watch the resignation creep into his regard and the belief gradually seep into that of Juan Carlos Ferrero.

It was only one defeat, and a logical one for anyone who saw the size of the open blisters on Nadal’s right foot that looked ugly even by tennis standards and required treatment midway through the second set. Understandable, too, when you consider that Nadal had already played and won back-to-back clay-court tournaments that matter in Monte Carlo and Barcelona and had sounded none too content at the prospect of having to play two more weeks in a row on clay.

But Nadal has hustled and muscled his way through greater adversity in the past on his favorite surface, and now the French Open, which begins in two weeks, looks a bit more intriguing.

For Nadal, one of the most positive-minded competitors in any sport, it has been a grumpy period, with the Spaniard leveling public criticism at the structure of the clay-court calendar, at the men’s tour chief, Etienne de Villiers, and at the Spanish Tennis Federation president, Pedro Muñoz, over the federation’s consideration of Madrid as a site for the Davis Cup semifinal against the United States in September. (Nadal and his teammates think the moderate altitude would help Andy Roddick and the Americans, even on clay.)

But the altitude at Roland Garros remains negligible. No matter who wins the Masters Series event in Rome on Sunday - and it won’t be Roger Federer - Nadal deserves to be the favorite to win his fourth consecutive title in Paris. The unexpected respite he is getting now could even help him arrive at Roland Garros feeling fresher and quicker than if he had slogged his way to yet another final or title in Rome.