Bend, don’t break: It’s a simple, well-worn phrase, but when describing Rafael Nadal on clay, there’s none more fitting. In the last three years, Nadal has found himself in several seemingly impossible situations, yet he recovered to win. In Rome in 2005, he lost the first three games of the fifth set to Guillermo Coria before prevailing in a tiebreaker. A year later, he did the same to Roger Federer, recovering from a 4-1 deficit in the fifth set and saving match points. Nadal has played the part of magician in a French Open final, too. In 2005, Mariano Puerta had a 5-3, 40-15 lead in the fourth set — but he couldn’t push Nadal to a decisive fifth.

In Hamburg this week, Nadal added two more gems to his comeback collection, achieving back-to-back wins over Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer to win the Hamburg Masters, the only major clay tournament whose title trophy he had yet to hold in his career. (Nadal missed the tournament between 2004 and 2006 and lost in last year’s final.) The Djokovic match, which lasted three hours and ended late Saturday afternoon, saw Nadal recover from a 3-0 deficit in the first set (Djokovic also held two break points for 4-0). If Nadal had lost, Djokovic would have knocked Nadal out of the no. 2 spot in the rankings for the first time since July 2005. The final against Federer, less than a day later, took nearly another three hours and included even more drama, with Nadal winning seven straight games after receiving treatment for a leg injury. Despite trailing 5-1 in the first set, Nadal won 7-5, 6-7(3), 6-3.

If I didn’t know Nadal to be a respectful and fundamentally decent person, I’d say he was the cruelest athlete in the world, given the way he tortures his opposition on clay. He’s now beaten Federer eight out of nine times on clay, with the lone loss occurring in Hamburg last year. He’s beaten Djokovic all four times they have met on clay and lost just one set. Nadal’s record in clay finals is now 21-1, and his overall record on clay since April 2005 stands at 108-2 (the second loss came in Rome two weeks ago when Nadal nearly retired with blisters on his foot).

Of all Nadal’s achievements on clay, his victory in Hamburg — a tournament with a slightly heavier, and less lively, surface that uses balls many players have complained about — might be the most impressive of his career. Federer and Djokovic are the two best players on clay other than Nadal, and each of them has refined his approach against the Spaniard in the last year. Yet they showed only modest signs of being able to beat him in a best-of-three set match, never mind a best-of-five set affair that follows a full day of rest, as will be the case in Paris beginning next week.

As he did in the Monte Carlo final, Federer mixed aggressive and steady play in yesterday’s final. He volleyed well and often dictated points with his forehand. He also took more chances on his return of serve, though perhaps not enough of them late in the match. He could have served better, and he should have won the first set when he missed an easy forehand, from a few feet in front of the net, at 5-1, 40-30, but one couldn’t fault his tactics. Djokovic is a superior service returner and less prone than Federer to strings of errors, but he’s less capable of suppressing the frustration that Nadal so often inspires with his defensive skills (Djokovic called Nadal “the best defensive player in the history of this sport”).

Both Federer and Djokovic put a positive spin on their losses. They are learning the right way to play against Nadal. They see how to attack him. They can win sets — winning a match can’t be far behind. At least, this is what they say. It doesn’t seem, though, that either of them truly believes that Nadal is beatable. When the French Open begins next week, it’s going to take one of these men — or an injury — to stop the Spaniard from winning his fourth consecutive French Open title, something only Bjorn Borg has accomplished. It doesn’t seem that either of them will be able to do it, at least not this year. Before the year ends, Nadal might well lose his no. 2 ranking. But all signs point to him remaining no. 1 on clay.

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The women no longer have a no. 1 on clay after Justine Henin’s shocking retirement. Henin’s departure was followed by several less shocking retirements at the Italian Open in Rome, where Serena Williams bowed out with a back injury and Maria Sharapova forfeited her semifinal match with a strained left calf. Warranted or not, those withdrawals damaged the tournament in Rome and did little to rid the sport’s fans of doubts about the commitment of the top women players.

Fitting, then, that Jelena Jankovic, who played more matches than any women in the world last year, won in Rome against Alize Cornet, a scrappy up-and-comer from France who will have a sizeable weight on her shoulders when she plays in front of a home crowd at Roland Garros. Jankovic won this title last year, too, and went on to lose to Henin in the French Open semifinals. Right now, she is the best woman on clay, Serena Williams is the best player in the world, and Sharapova is ranked no. 1 (thanks to Henin’s retirement). The French Open, it seems, is a toss-up.

Mr. Perrotta is a senior editor at Tennis magazine. He can be reached at tperrotta@tennismagazine.com.