Rafael Nadal's third successive Rome Masters title has left him in a class apart from his claycourt rivals as he prepares to defend his French Open title at the end of this month.

This year, more than ever, it is hard to see who will threaten Nadal's supremacy at Roland Garros when the 20-year-old Spaniard arrives in Paris.

Nadal has used his win in Rome as a springboard to French Open success for the past two years.

In 2005, Nadal - then an 18-year-old racing up the rankings - followed up his five-set victory over Guillermo Coria in the Italian capital with victory at Roland Garros to become the first teenager to claim a grand slam title since Pete Sampras won the US Open in 1990.?

Last year he saved two match points in another five-hour Roman epic against world No 1 Roger Federer before beating the Swiss again in four sets in the final in Paris.

His 6-2 6-2 win over Fernando Gonzalez in the Rome final on Sunday was a stroll in comparison with those previous matches.

"I think I am in the best moment of my career. I have worked very hard the last year and now I see the result," said Nadal.

Gonzalez was unrecognisable from the player who swept aside Filippo Volandri in the semifinals, but admitted afterwards that Nadal had made it impossible for him to play.

"It's easy to say my serve didn't work, or I had a bad day, but I think the reason (I didn't play well) was him," he said.

"He tries to play very high and deep. He's very fit - he can play for hours out there."

Nadal's last defeat on clay dates back to April 2005 when he lost to Igor Andreev in the quarterfinals of the ATP tournament in Valencia.

Since then, he has won 13 tournaments on the surface, putting together a run of 77 successive match wins.

This year he has lost only one set in 15 claycourt matches - in his semifinal win against Nikolay Davydenko in Rome.

Federer, meanwhile, seems to be losing the psychological war with his arch-rival.

Federer has lost seven of his 10 matches against Nadal, including all five meetings on clay.

His decision on Saturday to ditch his coach, Tony Roche, just two weeks before the start of the French Open and in the middle of a four-tournament run without a title - his longest trophy-less run since becoming world number one in February 2004 - puts a big question mark over his ability to win the last grand slam to elude him.

Former world No 1 John McEnroe, whose own failure to win at Roland Garros represented the only stain on an otherwise perfect career, believes time could be running out for Federer.

"There's a small window. Last year he had himself set up where everything had worked in his favor," the American said in a news conference in Rome.

"He had lost a couple of close matches to Nadal. Looked like the next step was winning it.

"So there's a sense of urgency. To me, if he's going to win the French it's going to have to be real soon: this year, next year."

Nadal, on the other hand, was showing fewer and fewer signs of weakness, said McEnroe.

"This guy is unbelievable on this surface. He's one of the best - he's like the (Bjorn) Borg of this era.

"Borg was incredibly fit and fast and you didn't win any free points against him. He just had this mental edge.

"In those days when guys used wood racquets, it wasn't as if you could get the ball by him. Nadal has like a different style, but with the same sort of end result. I just can't see that guy losing."

(China Daily via Agencies May 15, 2007)