this year after a return from a summer knee injury.

It was also Nadal’s 8th Barcelona title win.

“I am very happy,” he said. “It has been an important week for me to win here again and a great source of joy after everything I have been through.”

In the next several weeks, Nadal faces a race with time in his attempt to move in the ATP Tour rankings from five to four before the French Open seedings are released.

A ranking of four or better would mean the left-hander could not face the top three ranked ATP Tour players before the Paris semifinals.

The 26 year old Nadal is 52-1 at the French Open with seven titles.

In the final round at Stuttgart, Germany, the top seeded Sharapova defeated the second seeded Na Li 6-4, 6-3.

“She was the second seed and someone who I had lost to the last time we played, and obviously she was fresher than me going into the final, so I knew it would be the toughest match of the tournament,” Sharapova said. “II really tried to do the right things from the beginning to the end and not have a letdown like I did in the other matches; there were some struggles in those. But I kept giving myself chances to go to the next round, and I think I really played my best tennis of the week today.”

“No matter how difficult those other matches were or how tired I was, I stepped it up today.”

The 26 year old Sharapova who would probably count clay as her worst surface, defeated Sara Errani of Spain in last year’s French Open final.