Rafael Nadal: The Invincible Hero – Tennis Special
Former world number one, Rafael Nadal, is probably the best returner of the ball in the world at the moment. No one can meet his class when it comes to converting the defensive shot in to an attacking one. He can keep the ball
alive from almost any angle and those banana returns on top of the sideline are unmatched in the field of tennis.
However, one thing is troubling him ever since the inception of his career. He was physically challenged; had a foot injury at the age of 19 and the transfer of pressure on his back hurt his knee, shifting the pain from the right
foot to the left-knee. Nevertheless, the 26-year-old Spaniard kept on fighting for the top spot.
History has no single player who carried an injury throughout his career and yet managed to clinch 11-Grand Slam titles and a spot in the Top-5 category for almost five successive years. It is only the Spanish superhero who has
done that and therefore, in my eyes, a better player than the reigning world number one Novak Djokovic and on par with the 17-time Grand Slam Champion, Roger Federer.
Look at the career of Djokovic. He ended the second year as the number one player in the world but carried no injury at all; except few nudges at the shoulder and wrist which are usual for a tennis player. He played the entire
couple of season at full strength, yet couldn’t beat the pain-stricken Nadal before the match time stretched to almost six hours at the final of the Australian Open 2012.
Moreover, Nadal won eight straight titles at the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters which is an all-time record for a player to win a particular event for that many times. He has won seven French Open titles in the last eight editions of
the tournament at Paris. He is definitely invincible on clay just like the Swiss Maestro is at the indoor hard courts of O2 Arena in London; except this season where the 25-year-old Serb unlocked the door to success against Federer at the final of the Barclays
ATP World Tour Finals.
Such dominance will not be matched at least for the foreseeable future. Nadal is called the King of Clay and there are no arguments on that. He can do anything on the red dirt and by anything I mean absolutely everything that can
cross the mind of tennis greats. He dives across the court, gets up, plays the return, stretches to his length and still stays on top of the point.
Hence, it is difficult to imagine that he will not be able to return to the top of the game on his return at the Mubadala Tennis Championships that begin on 27 December, 2012. He took six months off from tennis to recover from
the chronic knee injury and dropped to the fourth spot in the ranking. However, the return to the top rank is on with his return to the field of tennis.
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are the writer's own and in no way represent Bettor.com's official editorial policy.
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