The dialogue wasn't bad either. Nadal congratulated Djokovic on winning his favorite tournament. Djokovic thanked the eight-time champion for letting him win it once.

Naturally, the reigniting of their rivalry has been greeted with enthusiasm and is the big development for the tour as it moves onward to the rest of the clay season. For the two players, though, it's all about their individual campaigns and how it affects the biggest goal of the year for both -- the French Open. Here's a look at where they stand after last week and how it affects Andy Murray's and Roger Federer's prospects as well.

Rafael Nadal

He was right. Once again, Nadal proved the most adept and insightful analyst of his own game, warning before last week that expectations of him should be lower than in past years because of his injury layoff. He struggled against Grigor Dimitrov earlier in the week and fell behind early in the final against Djokovic, battling back only to let it slip away at the end.

Although saying he was happy with his level of tennis overall, Nadal repeated that he's still lacking a little fitness because he was off for so long. Golf was the only sport he was able to play for much of that period, and he hasn't been training long enough to reach top shape yet. Against most players, it doesn't matter. Against Djokovic, it shows.

Nadal insisted his collapse when serving for the second set at 6-5 wasn't about nerves. Instead, Nadal said he just lost concentration and intensity.

"When you get tired physically, the mental part is very difficult to maintain there," he said.

The Spaniard went through something similar when returning from injury in 2009, so he knows what to do. More matches are the answer, and he'll get that this week in Barcelona.

"I feel for moments in the second set I played my best tennis of the week," Nadal said, reflecting on the final against Djokovic. "When I was doing that, I wasn't far [from] him.

"I needed a little bit more. I needed more physical performance. I needed more matches to play with this intensity all the time. I need to be completely focused in every moment.

"That gives you the competition, gives you these special things, extra things -- when you are playing against some players, maybe you don't need sometimes, but to play against Novak, to play against [a] few [other] players, you will need, and I need."

Novak Djokovic

Nadal's week ended with renewed questions, but Djokovic's ended with many answered. Should he have been playing on that injured ankle? Clearly, yes. Would his spring hard-court losses affect him? Apparently not. Did the tournament, playing in his residence of Monte Carlo, really mean that much to him? It looks like it.

It all added up to a big week for the Serb, who bent down and kissed the clay after winning the title.

"I went through pain. I went through a big challenge, mentally, physically, emotionally, and in the end, it was getting better," he said. "I think anybody who saw my expression in the end saw that it was a very emotional win."

That it came against Nadal had to be the biggest confidence boost of all, especially after he lost all their clay-court encounters last year. After starting the week obviously hampered in his movement, Djokovic's play in the semifinal against Italy's Fabio Fognini convinced him he had a chance against Nadal, and he felt the first set of the final was "the best I can play on clay."

At one point, Djokovic made a mysterious reference to the past two months being "emotionally, physically" difficult. Whatever he was talking about, it makes this victory even more significant. For the world No. 1, how he feels is often how he plays, and the high of this win should keep him rolling for the next few weeks.

"This trophy could not come in a better moment for me," he said.

Andy Murray

A loss to Stanislas Wawrinka on clay is one thing, but losing in less than an hour is another. So Murray was back on the practice courts for the rest of the week, with Ivan Lendl cracking the whip.

Improving his movement on the surface is key to improving his performance and results, goes their thinking, so he's putting in a lot of time hitting the ball. Despite losing early last week, Murray chose not to play Barcelona this week and keep practicing.

But that didn't quite match his feelings shortly after losing to Wawrinka, when he talked about the importance of competitive play.

"I need matches against top players to see what's going wrong and what's going right," Murray said.

He might have got some in Barcelona, which has both Nadal and David Ferrer in the draw.

A slow start is nothing new for Murray on clay. As he said, "Normally toward the end of the clay-court season, I start to feel better with my game and I've had some good results, but at the start I have struggled a little bit."

But quicker results are important this year; if he wants to gain ground on Djokovic for the No. 1 ranking, this is the time to do it. With relatively weak results last year, Murray has room to improve his points haul. For now, however, he's back at No. 3 behind Federer, though the two could switch again as Federer has the Madrid title and semifinals at Rome and the French Open to defend over the next few weeks.

Roger Federer

After not playing since Indian Wells, Federer is in danger of becoming a forgotten man these days. Although he practices in Switzerland, the chatter has been more about where he may not play rather than where he is playing. Local questions continue about whether he will play his hometown event in Basel in spite of disagreements about the appearance fee.

A couple of weeks ago, childhood friend and Davis Cup teammate Marco Chiudinelli stepped up the pressure on Federer to start playing the competition more. Federer has played Davis Cup only selectively for the last several years.

"Roger makes his decisions well in advance and is always honest," said Chiudinelli. "We have always said it's his decision. But naturally, we are all on the team, so I'm also disappointed he has not helped us often in the early rounds."

Federer won't play again until Madrid next month and may be happy to lie low. As far as he's concerned, not playing his rivals heading into the French Open is preferable to losing to them.

"It might have been a little bit of an advantage for Rafa to have beaten me before Paris on clay in the past seasons. That gives him confidence and might have made it a little easier to beat me in the finals," Federer said in 2009, the year he finally won the tournament after Nadal lost in the quarterfinals.

But he won't get a chance to ease back into competition either, facing the defense of his Madrid title the first week he returns.