When the struggling Juan Carlos Ferrero was benched during last year’s Davis Cup final in favor of Rafael Nadal, the former world no. 1 did not take kindly to the demotion. As Nadal carved up Andy Roddick and propelled Spain to victory, Ferrero sulked through a drubbing in doubles at the hands of American twins Bob and Mike Bryan. Ferrero, who led Spain to its first ever Davis Cup title in 2000, had gone from hero to has-been.

Over the weekend, the 18-year-old Nadal reminded Ferrero, 25, that he is still second fiddle in Spain with a 6-1, 7-6(4), 6-3 win in the final of the Open Seat Godo in Barcelona. Nadal has now won two straight tournaments and is ranked seventh in the world, his first venture into the top 10. All this, of course, has transpired in the first half of the year that Roger Federer was supposed to own from start to finish.

The left-handed Nadal takes every opportunity to hit his penetrating, high-bouncing forehand, and he had no trouble running around Ferrero’s attempts to play to his backhand. Nadal also continues to show that his serve, the weakest aspect of his game, can be effective. He leads the tour in first serve percentage (70%) and is third in winning points on his second serve (58%). He hit 76% of his first-serve attempts against Ferrero, and won 70% of those points.

As impressive as Nadal continues to be, his win over Ferrero was by no means a one-sided affair. After recovering from chicken pox and several injuries that battered his ranking, Ferrero has begun to find his way. He moved quite well and had opportunities throughout, many of which he frittered away with poor serves or horrendous errors.

Even in the first set, Ferrero easily could have – in fact, should have – avoided falling behind by a service break. Trailing 2-1, he twice held the advantage in a game that spanned six deuces and lasted 18 points. He missed his first serve 10 times and double-faulted once. He impatiently tried a difficult drop shot on the fifth deuce and missed four easy forehands in the game, including one on game point. After his miserable display, Ferrero looked frustrated as Nadal confidently took command.

In the second and third sets, though, Ferrero showed more promise. He dominated play early in the second to take a 3-1 lead, before losing his serve with another barrage of errors (a double fault and three missed forehands). Ferrero pulled ahead 40-15 on Nadal’s serve in the next game, but Nadal hit a volley winner and an ace for deuce. Later in the third set, Ferrero was leading 40-0 with a chance to get back on serve. Once again, Nadal clawed back with stellar play, reaching deuce with a running forehand winner down the line. Ferrero earned two more break chances but could not convert.

Despite the defeat, Ferrero ought to be encouraged by his progress. He defeated defending French Open champ Gaston Gaudio earlier in the tournament and played better in the final against Nadal than he did against Guillermo Coria a week earlier in the Monte Carlo semifinals, or at the beginning of the month against Nadal in Valencia, where Ferrero lost 6-2, 6-1.

Throughout his career, Ferrero has excelled at winning points on his opponents’ second serves and on his own. (He is not, however, as adept at returning good serves, especially on fast surfaces, as Brad Gilbert, then Andy Roddick’s coach, noted after Roddick clobbered Ferrero in the 2003 U.S. Open final.) When he reached the top of tennis in 2003, Ferrero tied Roger Federer for second on the tour by winning 56% of points against second serves. In 2001, he led the tour in that category; he finished seventh in 2002. On his own second serve, in 2003, Ferrero won 60% of points, best in the game. He finished ninth or better from 2000-02.

If we use these two categories to measure Ferrero’s progress this year, there is both reason for optimism and, as Nadal emphasized, room for improvement. So far, Ferrero is winning 56% of points against opponent’s second serves, just as he did in 2003. But he’s not among the top 10 in winning his own second-serve points. Against Nadal, he did not perform well in either respect, winning only 44% of points on Nadal’s second serve and a pathetic 39% of his own. Against Gaudio he won 58% of second serve points (both on Gaudio’s serve and on his own); against Nikolay Davydenko, in the semifinals, he won 50% of Davydenko’s and 55% of his own.

Ferrero, who jumped 16 places this week to no. 42 in the rankings, has three more tournaments on his slate before he arrives at the French Open, which he won in 2003. His next big test will come against countryman Carlos Moya, whom he should face in the second round in Portugal this week. If Ferrero can serve better, return second serves more aggressively, and execute his forehand more consistently, he will prove a dangerous opponent in Paris, even for Nadal.

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As Nadal continued to set the clay court standard, the two top American tennis players, Roddick and Andre Agassi, got their sneakers dirty for the first time this spring at the only ATP clay court event in the United States. Roddick waltzed through the U.S. Clay Court Championships in Houston, clinching his third title there with a 6-2, 6-2 battering of Sebastien Grosjean, a former French Open semifinalist whose game has slipped in the last two years (it was good enough, however, to beat an off-kilter Agassi in three sets in the quarterfinals).

Roddick rallied consistently all week and did not drop a set, though he did not play anyone ranked higher than no. 45 in the world, either. In Rome next week, the American will take his first hacks against the wily bunch of top-spinners, lobbers, and drop-shot artists who dominate the dirt.

Roddick reached the Rome semifinals in 2002, but has not advanced past the third round since. The American’s footwork and court positioning are his biggest weaknesses, and slow red clay, rife with bad bounces and slippery corners, will amplify those flaws. Don’t expect Roddick to try to emulate the smooth-sliding Nadal; he’ll be better off thumping his serve and playing aggressively, as Tim Henman did on the way to the French Open semifinals last year.