Steve, don’t you think Nadal’s Monte Carlo record inflates his number of Masters titles? It’s not an official Masters event anymore.—Otto
Nadal is the current all-time leader in Masters titles, with 26. Federer has 21, and Djokovic has 18, though Nole, who has won the last four, is gaining on both of them at the moment.
You’re right that Monte Carlo, when it comes to the Masters Series, no longer goes the full monte. In 2009, looking to ease some of the burden on the top players, as well as the American men who don’t like spending two months in Europe, the ATP restructured the series. It dropped Hamburg to a 500, moved Madrid from fall to spring to replace it, and left Monte Carlo perched nebulously in between. The tournament retained its 1000 ranking-point status, but it was no longer mandatory.
The latter change, as you suggest, makes the draw less likely to be loaded. Federer has skipped the event three of the last four years, and Andy Murray isn’t there this time. A case could be made that this keeps Monte Carlo from living up to the “Masters” ideal, which is that you must beat the best in the game to win the title.
Still, with the ranking points intact, the draws in the Principality have remained deep, and Nadal has generally had to face his biggest rivals there. In the mandatory days, he beat Federer in the final three times; in the non-mandatory era, he has beaten Djokovic in the final twice and lost to him once. And it’s not as if any win by Nadal on clay is a fluke.
You obviously can’t demote Nadal's four wins there from 2005 to 2008, when Monte Carlo was a mandatory tournament. I also don’t think you can demote the next four, either, because he and his opponents believed they were playing for a title that would go down on their records as a Masters victory. As for the future, it’s probably too late to suddenly decide that Monte Carlo isn't up to snuff; it wouldn't make the event or the players happy. I'd say you could downsize Rafa's 2010 title, when he lost one game to Fernando Verdasco in the final, except that Nadal played some of the best tennis of his career that week.
But you have a point. Or, like Monte Carlo’s status in the game, half of one.