With red dust on shoes and socks, it’s like he has stepped in blood

Meanwhile, Nadal has only grown in stature on his favourite surface. After yesterday’s match in Barcelona, he has won 42 straight sets on clay, dating back to the final of Rome last year. This eclipsed the previous record of 36, set by Ilie Nastase in 1973. Yesterday, Klizan became the first opponent in that entire sequence to win more than four games in a set, extending the match to an almost respectable 6-0, 7-5 scoreline.

The man most likely to inherit Nadal’s mantle would seem to be Dominic Thiem, a 24-year old Austrian who possesses the deep chest and beefy biceps required by this most physical of surfaces.

But when Thiem came up against the alpha male in Monte Carlo a week ago, the Spaniard defended his territory in fearsome style, handing out a 6-0, 6-2 beasting.

And where in all this, you might ask, is Roger Federer? Nadal’s oldest rival spent last week in Zambia, inspecting the work of his charitable foundation and meeting President Lungu. He has previously stated that the slipperiness of clay aggravates his left knee, on which he had surgery in 2016. But there is surely another reason. Having won his past five matches against Nadal, all on hard courts, Federer has little interest in bearding the Minotaur in his den.

What a shame. Were the old firm to convene once again on the clay, Federer would probably make little more impact than Klizan or Thiem. But at least he would add texture to what is a red-carpet procession. Rafael Nadal, the tennis Martian, rolls on.