Rafael Nadal ends his career best season on the tour
The Swiss tennis maestro, Roger Federer must have overpowered Rafael Nadal in the title battle of the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals, however, Rafa can still take a couple of magnificent championship wins home to enjoy his holidays.
Currently ranked number one in the South African Airways ATP list, the Spaniard superstar admitted after falling to Federer in the season finale that he tried his best, however, the Swiss played better than him without any question.
Nonetheless, the 24-year-old Rafa still had a dream season except for the defeat at the hands of Swiss Maestro in the WTF finals last week. He captured a total of seven crowns in 2010 which also includes three Grand Slam titles, the French Open, Wimbledon
as well as the United States Open back in September. His other season highlights include title victories in Monte Carlo, Rome, Madrid and Japan. The left hander, by virtue of his United States Open title, also completed his career Grand Slam on the tour.
He qualified into the elite eight man field in London months prior to the event in September. World number one took the path of greatness in 2010 which has been generally left for Roger in the recent seasons. The motivated Rafa also concluded the year as
number one in the ATP ranking list which even a legend like Roger could not stop from snatching.
After his U.S Open victory, the Manacor resident started the Asian swing by playing at the PTT Thailand Open where he made his way into the semi-final before losing to Guillermo Garcia-Lopez. The Spaniard next competed at the 2010 Rakuten Japan Open Tennis
Championships in Tokyo and successfully won the title after getting the better of Gael Monfils in two sets. The final match score was 6-1, 7-5.
At the 2010 Shanghai Rolex Masters in China, the top seed Rafa before his final appearance at the World Tour Finals, was upset in the third round by the world number twelve Jurgen Melzer.
The 20-year-old Federer, who made his debut on the ATP World Tour back in 2002, while commenting on Rafa’s incredible year said that he had an absolutely amazing season, one that many contender dreams of but very few get to triumph.
Nadal who also won a gold medal at the Olympic Games back in 2008 ended the 2009 year with three consecutive defeats including the season finale in London. His knee injury also affected his game at the Australian Open in 2010 as he had to concede the battle
versus Andy Murray. However, this may have provided the Spaniard the need and thirst to capture crowns after crowns in the following eight months on the tour.
The 1.85 meters tall while commenting on his title victories in 2010 reflected, “When you spend eleven months without a win, when you pass some difficult moments, you actually know how tough it is to win a competition, how hard it is to be there, how difficult
it is to be competitive every week. Therefore, when I started to win the first time, first event in Monte Carlo, everything was easier, not, because I pulled out all the pressure, all this anxiety. After that I started to play really well.”
Despite his final loss, he has also managed to take a lot of encouragement and motivation from his performance at this season’s World Tour Finals as the Spaniard added that he couldn’t win the title battle because he was up against a very good Roger Federer
on one of his favourite courts. However, Nadal is quite satisfied with his overall performance throughout the week and is looking forward to continue his form in 2011 as well.
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