First off, I must admit I was slow to get on the Rafael Nadal bandwagon….I viewed him first as a clay courter and didn’t initially pick up on the fact of his extraordinary will or in the ability to make major refinements to his game based on surface in order to win.
He is however an amazing champion and has a level of intensity and desire unmatched in tennis….He is the most competitive tennis player, perhaps the most competitive athlete I’ve ever seen.
By winning the US Open and completing the career slam (he has also won the Olympics), Nadal goes from being a very good player, the new Borg perhaps, to serious consideration as one of the greatest of all time.
I made this list awhile back http://rgdinmalaysia.blogspot.com/2009/06/top-ten-tennis-players-of-all-time.html I would now put Nadal at #4….Considering he is only 24 (perhaps the really amazing part of this), I would imagine he is going to win a lot more slams and the big questions becomes can he win all four in the same calendar year?....He is after all the first man to win the French Open, Wimbledon, and US Open back to back – three different surfaces….When Rod Laver won his two grand slams in the 1960’s, it was three grass court slams plus the French.
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