Rafael Nadal adds another feather to his cap at the end of a spectacular year
In 2002, a 16-year-old Majorcan boy reached the semifinals of the Boy's Singles tournament at Wimbledon, in his first ever ITF junior event. The boy’s name was Rafael Nadal, and he was ranked 762nd in the world.
Today, that young Spaniard is world number one and has been for quite some time now.
Nadal has just been voted sportsman of the year after a ballot of 515 sports journalists across the world, marking a perfect end to what has been a truly magical year for the tennis star – a year he himself terms the best of his
career.
“2010 has been the most emotional year in my career and the best in terms of results,” says Nadal. “I am very happy with the way things have gone and I can't really ask for more.”
Winning the US Open, Nadal became the fourth man in the Open Era to complete a Career Grand Slam and only the second since Andre Agassi to complete a Career Golden Slam.
Nadal won three Grand Slams this year, becoming the fourth man in the Open era to complete a Career Grand Slam and only the second after Andre Agassi to complete a Career Golden Slam.
For the sportsman of the year title, Nadal – who also won three Masters titles in 2010 – beat out Barcelona football stars Lionel Messi and Andres Iniesta, who stood second and third in the polls respectively.
This has not been the only sports poll Nadal has topped this year. A week ago, Nadal was chosen as the Spanish Sportsman of the Decade in a poll by Marca.com, a Spanish website. Another poll on another Spanish website, Elpais.com,
chose him as the Best Spanish Athlete of the Year.
There have also been other awards this year for the Spanish superstar. Nadal was also recently honoured as the BBC Overseas Sports Personality of the Year at a ceremony held in Birmingham. In November, Nadal won the ATP Tour’s
Stefan Edberg Sportsmanship Award, ending Roger Federer’s streak of six awards in a row.
Nadal started the year ranked second in the world and even slipped to third in February. His first appearance for the season came in Abu Dhabi at the Capitala World Tennis Championship, where he beat Robin Soderling in the final.
Next was the Qatar ExxonMobil Open in Doha, where he made it to the final before losing to Nikolay Davydenko. Nadal then entered the first Grand Slam of the year, the prestigious Australian Open; however, he had to pull out during his quarterfinal match against
Andy Murray, due to an injury. He then reached the semi-finals of the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, but lost to Ivan Ljubicic. He also reached the semi-finals of the Sony Ericsson Open but lost to Andy Roddick.
Nadal’s first title of the year came in April when he moved past compatriots to win the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters in Monaco. He then also won the 2010 Internazionali BNL d’Italia, as well as the 2010 Mutua Madrilena Madrid Open
after a final against Federer. The latter win was Nadal’s 18th ATP Masters title and broke Agassi’s record of winning 17 ATP Masters titles. Nadal’s third Masters for the year came the following week when he won the Rome Masters Series.
Nadal moved to the number one position after claiming his fifth title at the Roland Garros, becoming the first man to win three Masters title on clay and the French Open. The win also secured a place for Nadal in the ATP World
Tour Finals. He then entered the AEGON Championships, but lost in the quarterfinal stage.
Nadal then won at Wimbledon by defeating Tomas Berdych, giving him his first “Old World Triple”. After being unable to win the Rogers Cup (exiting in the semi-finals) and Cincinnati Masters (exiting in the quarterfinals), Nadal
went on to defeat Novak Djokovic in the final of the US Open, completing his Career Grand Slam and Career Golden Slam.
After reaching the semi-finals of the PTT Thailand Open, Nadal played in the Rakuten Japan Open Tennis Championships to win his seventh title for the year. He couldn’t win the Shanghai Rolex Masters in Shanghai, and pulled out
of the Paris Masters due to tendonitis in his left shoulder. At the end of the year, he reached the final of the ATP World Tour Finals but lost to Federer. Nevertheless, he ended the season as world number one.
“The season is always very long and there is a lot of time to do things either well or badly, but I will start next year without too much pressure because things went so well in 2010,” said Nadal after being named sportsman of
the year. “It will be difficult to repeat my results.”
But 2011 will begin with a new opportunity for Nadal to make history. Federer may have taken the 2010 Australian Open, but if Nadal wins the tournament in 2011, he will have completed a non-calendar year Grand Slam, becoming the
first man to win a Grand Slam since 1969. Whether he can do it or not, fans are waiting with bated breath to see.
Tags: