The Challenger... Review on Rafael Nadal

We have seen the domination of Roger Federer in the last 2-3 years but amidst him there have been some new and upcoming players who can challenge his ascendancy to the very Apex of Men’s Lawn Tennis. These players are mainly Rafael Nadal (Spain), James Blake (USA), Marcos Baghtatis (Cyprus), Ivan Ljubicic (Croatia) and David Nalbandian (Argentina).

But amongst these players the only real challenger to Federer in their one-to-one battles has been without doubt Rafael Nadal better known as Rafa. Rafael Nadal was born on June 3rd 1986 in Spain and is the nephew of the famous Barcelona Soccer Player Miguel Ángel Nadal. He is currently World's No. 2 player, his highest career singles ranking — and the first man since Boris Becker to reach that spot in his teenage years.

He turned Pro in 2001 and won his first ATP match in 2002 at the age of 15 to become the ninth player to win an ATP match before his 16th birthday. In 2003, Nadal became the second-youngest player to be ranked among the world's top 100 singles players. At his Wimbledon debut in 2003, he became the youngest player (at age 16) to reach the 3rd round since 16-year-old Boris Becker in 1984. By May 2005, he had reached the top 5 in world rankings, becoming the youngest player to break into the Top 10.

Nadal won eleven titles in 2005, including four ATP Masters Series events and and one Grand Slam title (Roland Garros, becoming the first player since Mats Wilander in 1982 to win the tournament in his first attempt). In his Roland Garros debut, he claimed the title by defeating world number one Roger Federer (against whom Nadal has a win-loss record of 4-1) in the semi finals on his 19th birthday on the way. At 19 years and two days, he became the sixth-youngest Grand Slam champion, and the fourth-youngest Roland Garros champion in the Open Era. He became the seventh player to win a Grand Slam in his first appearance at the event, and the first since Andre Agassi at the 1995 Australian Open. He became the first teenager to win a Grand Slam since Pete Sampras won the 1990 US Open at age 19. Nadal is the first teenager to win six titles in a year since Agassi in 1988 at the age of 18.

On March 4th 2006, Nadal handed Roger Federer his first loss of the 2006 season at the final of the Dubai Open. Nadal's current clay-court win streak stands at 42 consecutive matches, after having handed Roger Federer his second defeat of the year at the Monte Carlo Masters, a tournament that he won for the second straight year. His current Record against Federer is 4-1.

He has won a total of 14 Titles and his current record is 141-42 which is a success percentage of 77.04% compared to Roger Federer`s 77.65 %, Andy Roddick’s 76.29 % and Lleyton Hewitt’s 76.57 %, and these statistics speak for Nadal’s excellent performance.

Apart of an awesome show on the ATP Tour he has not shirked away his responsibilities of being a Spanish Davis Cup player and in 2004 he led his team to a victory against USA where he defeated Andy Roddick.

The best part of his play which I like is his Powerful One-Handed Forehand which he rips across and there are few players who can return that powerful shot, also his serve is also a crucial part of the game and he relies quite a lot on his high First Serve percentage.He is more of a Baseline Player and seldom uses Volley as a part of his Play, but one special thing which I really like about Rafa is his Risk taking ability and uses Drop Shots at very crucial junctures of matches, and during all his matches with Federer he has used the Drop Shot at Set Points and Break Points which really surprised Federer and the Experts alike.

I am sure he is going to give a great perormance in this year’s French Open at Roland Garros as he has not lost a single match on Clay in this year and he has not shied away from always stating that Clay is his favourite surface but I am sure with time and experience he is going to be an all-round player but traditionally Spanish Players have been Clay Experts and have always performed average on other surfaces especially Grass.

But still Rafa has a very long way to be considered one of the very good players in the annals of Men’s Lawn Tennis and to achieve that he has to improve his play on other surfaces as well mainly Hard Court and Grass where he has not performed to the extent he performs on Clay, but I am sure with the right guidance he would be an equally strong player on all surfaces and maybe in years to come displace Federer from the Top.

So watch out people this year’s French Open when Rafa defends his French Open Crown and I am praying to God to see a possible showdown between Rafa and Federer and that’s going to be a smashing match with Rafa’s agression and Federer’s finnesse.

Hope you liked this Review, I tried my best to give useful Information on Rafa and share some incisive inputs on him.