Rafael Nadal, New World Number One Male Tennis Player

Rafael Nadal Parera (born June 3, 1986 in Manacor, Majorca) is a Spanish professional tennis player who has been ranked World No. 1 since 18 August 2008.

Nadal has won five Grand Slam singles titles and the 2008 Olympic gold medal. He captured four consecutive French Open from 2005 through 2008 and Wimbledon in 2008. He is the only man other than Bjorn Borg to have won four consecutive French Open titles, one of only three men in the open era who won both the French Open and Wimbledon in the same calendar year, only the second male Spaniard to have won Wimbledon, and the only top-five ranked man to have won an Olympic gold medal in singles.

For much of his career, Nadal has had a rivalry with Roger Federer. He was ranked World No. 2 behind Federer for a record 160 weeks before earning the top spot. Nadal has won 12 of their 18 singles matches, including four of their six Grand Slam finals.

Nadal has been especially successful on clay courts. He has a 22–1 record in clay court tournament finals and is undefeated in over 40 best-of-five-set matches on clay. In each of the last four years, he has won both the French Open and two clay court Master series tournaments. He also owns the longest single-surface winning streak in the open era, having won 81 consecutive matches on clay from April 2005 to May 2007. As a result, some tennis critics and top players already regard him as the greatest clay-court player ever.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org