Tennis Special Report: Players still positive despite Federer- Nadal dominance
The Federer- Rafael period has seen slim pickings for the others when it comes to major titles however; the chasing pack claims that the margins remain small as they fight to break the duopoly.
In an unprecedented streak, Roger Federer and Rafeal Nadal have captured a total of twenty five out of the last thirty Grand Slam tournaments, setting a blistering pace that the rest of tennis contenders on the men’s side have failed to match.
The twenty nine year old Swiss, Federer has won a total of sixteen major titles so far in his career, a record for men’s tennis. With the world number one Rafa now on nine Grand Slams after a stellar season in which he grabbed the clay court, French Open
on the very first occasion, plus Wimbledon as well as the United States Open in New York.
However, as the year enters its final stretch with the battle to qualify for the ATP World Tour Finals in London, the top tennis contenders are looking to dig out ways to break the dominance.
"Everybody is trying to chase them as close as possible as we can. For me, it is a good time to be in this era that you can be competing against these two great players,”
said the world number seven tennis player, Tomas Berdych, who stunned the tennis world when he knocked down the sixteen time grass court Grand Slam winner, Roger Federer in this season’s quarter.
The Czech tennis player, who lost to Rafael in the final said that he thinks the gap is very small.
Tomas, speaking in Macau ahead of an exhibition championship at the weekend, said despite the limited chances, he was thankful to be contesting on the tour at the same time along with the two tennis greats in the world.
Robin Soderling, appearing alongside Tomas, David Ferrer and Nikolay Davydenko in Macau, has cause to rue the Nadal- Federer dominance, having been defeated in straight seasons by each player in the title battle of the French Open in Roland Garros.
However, the Swedish tennis player, with a miserable losing record of 13-1 versus the Swiss tennis maestro, said that the men’s game of tennis has great strength in depth.
"In any championship when Federer and Nadal are playing they will be the favourites but there are a lot of guys who can actually do well and compete and have a chance to win the bigger tournaments. Maybe there are 10 or even 15 guys. The top is really,
really tough. Anyone on a good day can beat anyone,” added the fifth ranked tennis player.
Davydenko, the world number six, who has a rare 5-4 winning record versus Rafa, said men’s game of tennis boasted great strength in depth, joking about his record versus the world number one Nadal.
Spain’s eleventh ranked Ferrer declared, “I think now it's very difficult to win Grand Slams but I think it's a good time.”
Rafael, headlining this week's Thailand Open tennis tournament, registered his name as the seventh player in the history to achieve a career Grand Slam when he captured his first United States Open trophy over Djokovic in this month's title battle at the
Flushing Meadows.
However, despite his impressive season, Robin, top seed at this week’s Malaysian Open tennis competition, where his other three countrymen are also contesting, believes the third ranked Roger remains the yardstick.
Soderling insists that Rafael has bright chances to be known as the best ever tennis player in the world, however at the moment there is certainly no doubt about the fact that Roger Federer is still the best with his total of sixteen Grand Slam titles.
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