The best of the decade; top male tennis players (Part 9)
If you’ve been following the articles about the top ten tennis players of the decade, you’d have to be living under a rock not to know who rounds up the list with the top two spots. At number two in our list is the indomitable Spaniard Rafael Nadal Parera.
Nadal turned pro at the age of 15 in 2002 and won his first ATP match against Ramon Delgado. At the close of the year he reached the semi-finals of the Boy’s Singles tournament at Wimbledon, which was his first ITF junior event. By 2003 he had propelled
himself into the top 50 from his initial ranking of 762, after clinching two Challenger titles. However, it wasn’t until 2004 that he rose to tennis stardom. At the Miami Masters he defeated Roger Federer, who was world number one then. This happened in his
first match against him and that too in straight sets. In their next meeting, also at the Miami Masters in 2005, Federer managed to beat Nadal but only after five sets in which Nadal won the first two. Many pundits considered this to be a breakthrough for
Nadal and started a tennis rivalry which has become the stuff of legends.
There was no looking back for Nadal after this. He dominated the clay court season with a record of 24 consecutive wins. After winning both the Monte Carlo Masters and the Rome Masters, Nadal had improved his ranking to number five and became one of the
favourites to win the French Open that year. After defeating Federer in the semi-finals on his 19th birthday, Nadal went on to overcome Mariano Puerta in the finals to become only the third man to win the French Open on the first attempt. Though
he fumbled on grass at the Garry Webber Open and at Wimbledon, he had a successful hard-court season and won the Montreal and Madrid Masters.
In 2006 the Spaniard again defeated Federer at the Dubai Men’s Open. He again dominated the European clay by winning all four tournaments he entered and 24 consecutive matches. After defeating Federer once more, he cemented his title as the ‘King of Clay’
by winning 53 consecutive matches on clay courts. In the French Open final, he again defeated Federer to successfully defend his title. He also fared better at grass, defeating Agassi in the third round before losing to Federer in the final. 2007 saw a recap
of the previous years, with "The King of Clay dominating on clay courts but losing to Federer on grass at Wimbledon. 2008 however, was a phenomenal year for the Spaniard. He won at Monte Carlo, Barcelona, Hamburg and at the French Open he handed Federer his
worst defeat. But all this was eclipsed by what was to come. The match is considered by many to be the greatest tennis match of all time. In the longest Wimbledon final in history, after a gruelling five sets, Nadal finally won his first Wimbledon title and
became only the third man to win both the French Open and Wimbledon in the same year.
The Spaniard carried his phenomenal form into the 2008 Beijing Olympics were he defeated Novak Djokovic in the semis and Fernando Gonzalez in the finals to win the Olympic gold medal. At the end of the year he finally gained the number one spot after spending
a record 160 consecutive weeks at number two. In 2009 Nadal came closer to completing the Career Grand Slam when he won the Australian Open at Melbourne after defeating Federer in a five set final. He was unstoppable at the European circuit too, where he won
at Monte Carlo, Rome and Barcelona before finally falling to Federer at the Madrid Open. He stayed out most of the remaining season because of tendonitis on both his wrists.
Though 2010 started slowly for Rafa, he quickly reminded us all why he deserves his number one ranking. He won the Monte Carlo Masters in Monaco for the sixth consecutive time, the Italian Open, the Madrid Masters for the fifth time and the French Open for
the fifth time. Rounding out his success at clay was a win at the Wimbledon finals where he defeated Tomas Berdych. In the US Open he prevailed over Novak Djokovic in the finals to finally complete his Career Grand Slam. He became only the second person after
Andre Agassi to complete the Career Grand Slam and win an Olympic gold medal, a feat called the Career Golden Slam. He ended 2010 winning three Masters and three Slams and regained his number one position.
For his phenomenal career and achievements he has won several awards, the most notable among them being the 2008 ATP Player of the Year award, the 2008 ITF Champion and the European Athlete of the Year honour.
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