Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer or Andy Murray: Who Will be Number One in 2011?
Another year has almost passed us by and indeed the year has kept, especially the tennis fanatics among us at edge. The year has been full of action on the courts.
For the Roger Federer loyalists, the year might have been somewhat of a disappointment, as it saw the tennis legend being usurped from his World Number One throne by none other than his bitterest rival; Rafael Nadal. Roger won just a lone Grand Slam as the year started out but this success was followed by loss after loss. Indeed, it could be said that professionally this was probably the worst year for the Swedish star since he started playing.
Roger’s performance had many a people thinking that maybe it was finally time for the legend of Roger Federer to be put to rest. The tennis great, however, pulled a fast one on spectators worldwide and proved that he still had “A LOT” of tennis left in him.
While we saw Federer off his game, his on-court rival Rafael Nadal experienced what was probably the best year of his professional career. The year could have been perfect for the Spaniard, had it not been for a few major losses. However, he still ended the year at a high with the World Number one position in his bag.
Nadal’s achievements seem even more impressive when one looks back at 2009, a year blemished by a number of injuries. Putting everything behind, the Spaniard, brought his A-game to the court throughout 2010 and proved to the world what a talented, tough, skilful and tenacious tennis player he is. Rafael, in 2011, will have a shot at completing another non-calendar year grand slam, a calendar year grand slam and winning 7 straight consecutive grand slam titles; a feat that has never been accomplished before.
With victories at the French Open, Wimbledon and US Open in his pocket, Rafael Nadal is now over 3000 points ahead of Federer in the rankings. This will make things a little harder for Roger Federer to take back the Number 1 spot the coming year. Despite his two major losses, Nadal is looking like the best candidate to win the calendar Golden Slam in 2012.
However, when talking about the two tennis giants no news seems to be new news anymore. As much as the mind can recall, tennis has been dominated by Nadal and Federer, fighting a bloody and bitter war, for the Number One position. This year, we are proud to say, the two have finally seen some great competition. For the first time in a while now, their position at the very top is not as secure as they would have liked it to be.
Surprisingly, the top ten players exhibited massive improvement in their game this year; especially that of Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray and Robin Soderling. Could it be that in 2011 the Grand Slams are won by players other than Federer and Nadal? In our opinion, the odds of this happening are very high indeed.
Novak Djokovic has had somewhat of a roller coaster season. He made it as high as number 2 on the rankings, but could not maintain the level of play and fell back into his ever so familiar position of number 3. However, Djokovic has no need to be stressed at the moment. Currently, at the perfect point in his career, 2011 may provide him with ample opportunities to finish with a Number 2 or 1 spot.
Andy Murray, another crowd favourite, also faced a somewhat similar performance graph this year with a drop to the Number 5 position, which he was able to improve just in time to score the number 4 slot.
To read Part 2 of this article click http://www.senore.com/Rafael-Nadal,-Roger-Federer-or-Andy-Murray-Who-Will-be-Number-One-in-2011-Part-2-a46918.
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