Rafael Nadal posted a photo of himself hosing down the court after practising at home in Mallorca last week before heading to Monte Carlo for the first of three Masters 1000 claycourt events en route to the French Open.

The Spaniard will enjoy pouring cold water too on the notion his reign as king of the claycourts is in peril.

It is not the first time Nadal has begun the gruelling European swing with questions about his form.

Invariably his answer is emphatic, sweeping through to Roland Garros where he grinds his rivals into the dirt.

Nadal’s year has so far been on the back-burner.

Most felt his run to the Australian Open quarter-finals exceeded expectations after nearly half a year recovering from wrist problems and appendicitis.

What has followed, however, has given ammunition to the critics who say the 28-year-old 14-times grand slam champion has lost his mojo.

Beaten by Fabio Fognini on clay in Rio, he rebounded to win the Buenos Aires title but looked out of sorts on the hardcourts of Indian Wells and Miami.

Nadal may have slipped to fifth in the world but his form in Monte Carlo this week, where he won eight years in succession from 2005, will offer a barometer of where his game is as he eyes a record-extending 10th French Open crown.

“It’s a claycourt season where perhaps I’m arriving in the worst form of my career,” Nadal, who has 46 clay titles, told Spanish media.

“My ranking is based on these next six, seven, eight weeks and if I don’t manage to get better results then my ranking will suffer quite a lot.”

Top-ranked Novak Djokovic appears primed to end Nadal’s Parisian dominance and complete his own career grand slam.

Following Monte Carlo, where Stanislas Wawrinka beat fellow Swiss Roger Federer in last year’s final, there are stops in Barcelona, Munich and Estoril before the stakes rise at the Madrid and Rome Masters in May.

Nadal won in Madrid last year and lost to Djokovic in the Rome final.