It is approximately 1700 miles from Acapulco to Indian Wells but as the top trio of world tennis began arriving in the Californian desert yesterday, it is a fair bet that conversation turned to what happened in Mexico the night before.

A month into his comeback from a serious knee injury that looked like it might end his career, Rafael Nadal destroyed David Ferrer to claim the 52nd title of his career. It was not the fact that he won the Abierto Mexicano Telcel title to make it 12 wins out of 13 since his resurgence began, or the fact that he has now racked up 38 titles on clay that made it so impressive. But beating fellow Spaniard Ferrer, who replaced him as the world No.4 after the Australian Open, 6-0, 6-2 was a massive statement of intent as the Tour begins a brief, but important, US hard-court swing.

Having been unsure if his knee would allow him to play in Indian Wells where the BNP Paribas Open begins, for the men, on Thursday, Nadal will now go into his first hard-court event in a year with more confidence than seemed likely when he began his comeback.

"It's a tournament that I love and one of the best events in the year," a jubilant Nadal said after his win over Ferrer. "My knee responded well this week and I really hope it will continue this way."

In his first two events back, in Vina del Mar, Chile and Sao Paulo, Brazil, there were one or two sparks of the old Nadal but the quality of opposition was never of such a level to make a real judgment on his form. But last week, in beating another Spaniard, Nicolas Almagro, in the semi-finals and then demolishing Ferrer, the spring was back in his step and the old venom prevalent in the passing shots.

"I played exceptionally well," he said. "I dominated the game against the world No. 4 and couldn't be happier, especially when I think where I am coming from. Perhaps conditions were in my favour but it was maybe one of the best matches of my career."

Considering his tendency is to downplay his form rather than talk himself up, those were bold words from Nadal and ominous ones for his rivals. Providing he continues to show no reaction to the left knee injury that forced him off the Tour after last year's Wimbledon, he will be as big a threat as ever when it comes to the clay of Monte Carlo, Madrid, Rome and Roland Garros, where he will be bidding for an eighth French Open crown.

The conspiracy theorists did not expect him to show up in Indian Wells, convinced he would skip the hard-court swing to stay on clay until Roland Garros in late May. Confirmation he will be in California was a positive step and though he is being paid a small fortune to show up for an exhibition in New York today – the rumours are he will receive around $1m – he would not play there if he was not happy with life.

And so Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer and Andy Murray will be keeping a close eye on what happens this weekend when Nadal steps out for his first competitive foray on hard courts in just over a year.

Certainly, Nadal's record in Indian Wells merits their wariness. He beat Djokovic to win in 2007, saw off Murray in 2009, reached the final in 2011 and has made the semi-finals on four other occasions.

Everyone knows how good he is on clay. How he performs on hard courts over the next fortnight in Indian Wells will go a long way to showing whether he can regain the aura he had until his knee gave out last summer.

Nadal has never been as dominant or as at home on hard courts as he is on clay but if he goes well this time, then the fear factor among his rivals will only grow.