Wimbledon 2010: Rafa’s mental strength surpasses the Brit Andy Murray
Born on 3rd June, 1986, Rafael Nadal Parera is a Spanish professional tennis ace who is currently the top ranked player in the world. Nadal has succeeded in a total of seven Grand Slam singles tournaments, the Olympics single’s gold medal in 2008, a record eighteen ATP World Tour Masters 1000 championships as well as was a member of the Spanish team for the Davis cup that triumphed in the final matches in the years 2004, 2008 and more recently in 2009.
Nadal was listed number two in the world’s ranking behind the top ranked tennis player, Roger Federer for a record one hundred and sixty weeks in a row prior to his top position jump, which he then enjoyed from 18th August 2008 to July last year. Rafa however, got back his top ranking spot on 7th June 2010, few weeks earlier as a result of triumphing in the Grand Slam French Open championship as his fifth title. His winning percentage on clay courts has given him the nick name “ The King of clay”, and has impelled the commentators to consider him the paramount clay court specialist of all times and surly one of the prodigious challengers in the history of world tennis. Two years ago, the Spanish athlete was awarded the Prince of Asturias Award in acknowledgment of his accomplishments in the sports of tennis.
Talking about the ongoing Wimbledon edition 2010, the hot favourite name for the champion is none other than Rafael Nadal especially after the tragic departure of the top seeded player, Roger Federer. After his early exit, Federer in his news conference told the media reporters that his trifling injuries did affect his game at the All England Club. However, the greatest tennis sensation of all times humbly greeted Tomas Berdych who was his opponent in the quarterfinal clash at Wimbledon for a wonderful exhibit of tennis. He did manage to deal with the Federer’s game pretty well in the end.
Now, as the big man is out of the Wimbledon scene, the top favourite to win this year’s grass court Grand Slam title is definitely Rafael Nadal who was seeded number two for this championship. His game has also been getting with every single match of this tournament.
As far as the semi final of the Wimbledon 2010 is concerned, Nadal has at the least a total of six greater majors as compared to others in the draw (Novak Djokovic triumphed in the Australian Open back in 2008). However, what is impossible to gauge arithmetically is his mental strenuousness. He is one of the hardest challengers in the tennis world; panicky is hardly the cause whenever he falls down in a match. The tennis ace is currently contesting along with three other players for a final spot at the Wimbledon 2010. Rafa, however has no comparison with the rest of them in terms of his quality of game beyond any measure of speculations.
Therefore, the book makers have stood up mostly for Nadal first triumphing in the semis and eventually gaining the title by winning the final match at the All England Club. However, there is no doubt about the fact that Andy Murray has equal possibilities of winning the silver trophy. However, the area that places him behind Rafa is his is his mental strength that most critics doubt. Therefore whether he will be able to beat Nadal in that area or not, is definitely a striking question at the moment.
However, he did manage to defeat Rafa in a total of two Grand Slam events, firstly at United States Open back in 2008 and more recently in the Australian Open championship this season. Yet another important fact cannot be ignored that Nadal on both these occasions was either facing problems with regard to fitness or form, which is definitely not the case this time.
So, the semi final encounter on Friday at the All England club would be action packed and thrilling for sure!
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