2011 is already a fascinating one as Novak Djokovic is the one unbeaten.
Monte Carlo starts Monday & like last year Rafa enters titless on the year.
He also comes to Monte Carlo as the 6-time defending champion.
We've never been able to say that very often in men's tennis history.
Let's look at his unreal W/L numbers for the May/June clay season since '05:
'05: 26-1, '06: 24-0, '07: 26-1, '08: 22-1, '09: 22-2, '10: 22-0. That's 142-5.
Even more amazing: last years 22-0 only saw the loss of 2 sets.
Of the 51 (51-2) sets he won in '10 only 7 of them had a '7' in the set score.
Rafa lost both IW/Miami finals to Novak Djokovic - who pulled out of MC.
They can't see each other again unless they both reach the final in Madrid.
But Federer is entered in MC - so another chapter can be written with them.
Rafa's possible seeded road to the Monte Carlo final looks like this:
Gasquet in R16, Berdych or Tsonga in Qf's, Murray, Monfils or Simon in Sfs.
Rafa on repeating his unbeaten clay season last year:
That's a once in a lifetime to win every tournament on clay.
Nobody else has done it in history, only myself last year.
So it's difficult to imagine two years in a row I can repeat that.
Also last year Madrid and Rome were not back-to-back.
With Rafa really wanting to play Barcelona - Rome may have to go...
Photos: Rafa posted these today of Facebook of Port of Monaco
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