Rafael Nadal powering towards greater glory
Nadal’s fan following increased immensely with the achievement of his ninth major at the U.S Open. Since the start of his career in 2002, Nadal has won nine Grand Slam singles titles and the 2008 Olympic gold medal in singles.
With the addition of the victory in the 2010 US Open and completing the career grand slam, he paved his way to the No.1 rank. Nadal was the top seed for the second time in three years. He defeated Teymuraz Gabashvili, Denis Istomin, Gilles Simon along
with number 23 seed Feliciano Lopez, number 8 seed Fernando Verdasco, and number 12 seed Mikhail Youzhny and made it to the US Open final for the first time. After Andre Agassi, he is the second male player to complete a career grand slam.
Roger Federer held the top spot for a record of 160 consecutive weeks, until Nadal earned the title from 18 August 2008 to 5 July 2009. After losing the title in 2009, he achieved the title again by winning the French Open title. Following this, for his
recognition of his achievements in tennis, he was honoured with the Prince of Asturias Award.
According to Sampras, if Nadal maintains the same pace, stays healthy and maintains a proper schedule, he can beat Roger Federer’s record of 16 Grand slams. He optimistically added in the conference call for the BNP Paribas Showdown, “If he's smart with
his schedule and the fact that he has so many at such a young age, he could very well do it,” Sampras addressed Nadal as the “beast” on the court and holds the opinion that Nadal has a high possibility of surpassing Federer’s record in the future.
At the age of 24, Nadal has earned nine Grand slams as well as won the French Open and Wimbledon this year. However, Federer earned his ninth Grand Slam in 2006 at the age of 25. Furthermore, Nadal was the first player after Bjorn Borg to sweep both majors
in 2008. Roger managed to sweep last year, but Nadal has managed to do it twice since then.
Federer broke Sampras’s record of 14 Grand Slams in 2009, and Nadal is expected to follow his footsteps.
Spaniards were always considered specialists on clay-courts, but Nadal from the beginning of his career emphasized on winning Wimbledon. He won Wimbledon 2 years ago, and is the first Spanish player to win it twice. Nadal’s commitment towards his goal was
evident when he said, “If you really want to play well on one surface and you are a good player, I think in the end you’re going to find a way.”
Nadal has won the Olympics, the majors and has a great win record against Federer. Sampras in his conference also emphasized on the point that Nadal does not need to prove himself as the champion. He is the youngest player to complete the grand slam collection,
and by adding the title in New York, he is amongst the league of Fred Perry, Don Budge, Rod Laver, Roy Emerson, Andre Agassi and Roger Federer as the only men to achieve the four biggest prizes in tennis.
With the passage of time, the performance gap between Nadal and the rest of the men is widening. Nadal at the moment is 31-1 with five titles since mid-April.
Despite being the winner of eight major championships and coming in the list of such great players as Andre Agassi, Jimmy Connors and Ivan Lendl, Nadal still looks forward to a breakthrough. His grinding style of play puts immense pressure on his body, and
his knees, which is very crucial at this crucial time of his career.
In the past few years, Nadal has suffered from knee injuries and a pulled abdominal muscle. According to Sampras, "The only question with Rafa is physically how much his body can handle the pounding with how hard he works for every point,"
Sampras, the former World No.1 and the winner of 14 Grand Slam titles reiterated in his conference call, "(Nadal's) in the middle of his career, so he could do a lot more great things."
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