Nadal well placed to take Federer’s Grand Slam record
Roger Federer’s has been a formidable career, and one that in so many ways has been unmatched by any player before him.
And yet, even as Federer seems destined to end his career as the Grand Slam title record holder, he cannot rest easy, for the challenger to his supremacy is not an as yet unknown kid who has just picked up a racquet for the first time, or a player still working his way around the junior circuit.
No. It’s none other than his great rival and the current world No. 1, the 24-year-old Rafael Nadal, who with his US Open victory this year has become the youngest player in the Open era to complete a career Grand Slam.
It’s a feat that Federer had to wait until he was 27 to achieve and is another feather in the Spaniard’s cap as he too has the scribes reaching for their pens to etch his name into the record books.
With the 2010 US Open silverware safely in his hands, the Spaniard has now won nine Grand Slam titles and still has room to squeeze a 10th in at the Australian Open before his 25th birthday. By comparison, when Federer was 24, he added three major titles to his tally to reach a total of eight.
He’s doubled it since, sweeping Pete Sampras’ old record of 14 Grand Slam titles aside when he won Wimbledon in 2009, but Nadal is well placed to pounce.
Not that the US Open champion is thinking in those terms right now. “Remain a lot of titles [to catch Federer], so that's no doubt about that, no?” said Nadal after claiming his ninth major crown. “Is very, very - is too far. Sixteen...is too far for me to think about that, no?”
Nadal may be reluctant to engage in the debate, but such has been the left-hander’s dominance at the majors this year – he’s pocketed titles at Roland Garros, Wimbledon and the US Open – that it’s hard to imagine that he won’t make further ground on Federer’s record 16 titles in 2011.
In fact, if Nadal can maintain his current form and remain injury free, he may yet achieve something that Federer (thanks largely to Nadal’s domination of the French Open) hasn’t been able to manage over the course of his illustrious career and that’s to complete a calendar-year Grand Slam.
If there’s one concern though about Nadal’s ability to write himself into the record books as the most prolific Grand Slam title winner then it must be his body, which has admittedly stood up surprisingly well in 2010, a torn knee muscle at the Australian Open the only major problem so far.
That hasn’t always been the case for the Majorcan, who was dogged by knee tendinitis at the end of 2008 and again in 2009, the ailment forcing him to miss his Wimbledon title defence last year. All the evidence though now points to the fact that rather than take a step back from the physically punishing brand of tennis that has taken him to the top, Nadal has instead learned to manage his tournament workload to protect his dodgy knees.
Next year, it seems, looms as a pivotal one for both players. Federer aims to fight back from a year at the majors that, after commencing with the Australian Open title but ending without another appearance in a Grand Slam final has (by his lofty standards) been a disappointing one and Nadal seeks to continue his sublime Grand Slam form into 2011.
If he can do so, this time next year Nadal may not think that breaking Federer’s record is all that far away.
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