Tennis players deprived of Grand Slam championships because of the Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal duopoly
Tennis Grand Slams are the biggest and most prestigious events which take place in the world of tennis. There are four Grand Slams taking place over the year in the tennis calendar. The year begins with the Australian Open. Then there is the French Open which is held in late May and early June. After this there is Wimbledon which is the oldest Grand Slam tournament out of the four and the year is concluded by the US Open. All four of these mega tennis tournaments attract tennis fans from all over the world and keep them hooked from the beginning to the end.
Two names in the professional world of tennis have taken up most of the positions in the list of Grand Slam champions in the past six years. They are none other than two of the greatest players of all time; Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal. Since 2005, there have been only three other players to have won a Grand Slam Championship other than these two. None of the three players who have been able to win in the past five years have been able to uphold their position as the Grand Slams champion like that of Federer and Nadal.
Roger Federer is a Swiss professional tennis player and a former world number one. He is in the lead with Grand Slam winnings as he has a male record of sixteen Grand Slam titles. Federer is currently world number three and this is the lowest he has fallen from the first or second position in world tennis rankings in almost seven years.
Rafael Nadal is a young Spaniard and has joined Federer in the running to become one of the greatest tennis players of all time. Nadal is currently ranked world number one but he is still behind Federer in his Grand Slam titles and only has eight under his name, however, he is still in the form to win more. Most of the Grand Slams since 2004 which have not been won by Federer have been taken up by Nadal.
At the Australian Open, Roger Federer has been the major champion and has won this Grand Slam four times in the years 2004, 2006, 2007 and 2010. Nadal made his name as the Australian Open champion in 2009. The Russian professional tennis player, Marat Safin, is the one of the players, other than Federer or Nadal to have won at this Grand Slam in the past six years in the year 2005. The other Australian Open champion has been the young Serbian player, Novak Djokovic, who won this title in 2008.
The French open is held in the clay-court season and this championship has been ruled over by none other than Rafael Nadal. Nadal’s game is considered to be unbeatable on a clay surface and for this he has been named by many as the ‘The King of Clay’. The King has won at the French Open in the years 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2010. Roger Federer has filled up the gap by winning in the year 2009, leaving no space for any other player to have won this title since 2005. This is the only Grand Slam Federer has only won once while he has been the champion at other Grand Slams on multiple occasions.
Followed by the French Open is Wimbledon. Wimbledon has entirely been dominated by Federer and Nadal. From the year 2003 to 2007, Federer had five consecutive wins at Wimbledon, making him the second man in history to have accomplished this feat. His line of consecutive wins was broken by Nadal in 2008 when he became the Wimbledon champion for the first time. Federer managed to win back his title in 2009 but Nadal again became the champion in 2010.
The US Open has been completely dominated by the five consecutive victories of Federer in the years 2004 to 2008. This time it was not Nadal who came in the way, it was the Argentinean tennis player Juan Martin Del Potro who defeated Federer in the semis making his way to a victory in the final. Hence the US Open championship title in 2009 was awarded to Del Potro. The US Open is the only Grand Slam Nadal has not won as yet but this year he is working hard to prepare himself to win.
This famous duopoly between Federer and Nadal has gone down in history as one of the greatest rivalries of all time. How long will it last; no one knows.
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