Rafael Nadal beats Roger Federer to win Australian Open

So finally it is official. Rafael Nadal truly is a superhuman performer after recovering from the longest marathon the Australian Open has ever known to overcome the might of Roger Federer and claim his third grand-slam title in a brilliant seven-month stretch.

It was a night of firsts at Melbourne Park. The first Spaniard ever to win the year's opening major. The first Australian final to extend to five sets since the event was moved to this venue five years ago. The first grand-slam final ever to reach a conclusion beyond midnight.

However, the evening will forever be remembered for the magnificence of Nadal's performance in once again proving himself the master of endurance to beat Federer 7-5, 3-6, 7-6, 3-6, 6-2. There is no stopping this 22-year-old and huge doubts must be in the mind of his great rival as to whether he ever will go on to beat Pete Sampras's record of 14 grand-slam titles.

As Federer leveled the match at two sets all, it looked inevitable that he would level the Sampras total. Nadal, extended by his countryman Fernando Verdasco to five hours 14 minutes of action less than two days earlier, appeared to have hit a physical wall, while the Swiss seemed to be hitting his stride.

adal then once again proved he is a competitor who can never be counted out. He regrouped, he changed his shirt, bandana and racket and came back to outgun Federer with display that left the three-time Australian Open champion looking like a man ready to accept defeat in the closing few games.

There was a strange resignation to Federer's play at the end. No longer was he the imperious champion who once accepted victory in hard-court finals as a near-certainty. There is now almost an inferiority complex when he stands next to Nadal and the flood of tears that delayed his runner-up speech almost suggested a knowledge that his truly great days are over.

If last summer's Wimbledon final between the pair was the greatest tennis match ever played, then for long periods this offering was not far behind. Some of the rallys were truly stunning, some of the recovery play seemed to break the bounds of human possibility and the gaggle of greats sitting in the Presidents' Box including Rod Laver, Ken Rosewall, John Newcombe, Tony Roche and Neale Fraser were, like the rest of the 15,000 crowd, repeatedly forced into rapturous applause.

Perhaps the omens of it not being Federer's night were plain from the opening game as he uncharacteristically dropped serve. This was not the stuff expected of legends; he framed a forehand long and was then horrendously wrong-footed as Nadal could hardly believe his initial luck.

By his own immaculate standards, Federer did not serve well all match. He went through several periods where he struggled to get his first delivery into play and hit six double faults, several of them at crucial moments.

Nadal may have served half as many aces but was still a model of consistency from the service line and had the ability to produce the big one when required. But the deciding factors were his resilience, his spirit, his attitude and his strength. He has now proved he can win on a hard court in a five-set final in the same way that he has done on clay and grass.

Perhaps it was apt that he received his trophy from Laver himself, the last man ever to complete the full grand-slam. Given Nadal's immaculate new credentials on all surfaces on which major tournaments are played, there is a distinct possibility that 40 years on from Laver's feat, we will finally be lauding somebody else as the king of the grand slam.

Source: www.timesonline.co.uk

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

Nadal Wins First Wimbledon Title

Rafael Nadal described his first Wimbledon title as a "dream" after beating Roger Federer in an epic final.

The 22-year-old won 6-4 6-4 6-7 (5-7) 6-7 (8-10) 9-7 to become the first Spaniard since Manuel Santana in 1966 to win a Wimbledon singles title.

French Open champion Nadal had lost to Federer in the last two finals.

"It's impossible to describe. I'm just very happy. It's unbelievable for me to have the title here at Wimbledon," said the Majorcan.

"It's a dream. Always, as a kid, I dreamed of playing here.

"For any Spanish player to win here is unbelievable - for any player - but especially Spanish because we don't have a lot of titles here."

Nadal is the the first man since Bjorn Borg in 1980 to win the French Open and Wimbledon back to back, and now has five Grand Slam titles. Read more..

Ferrero Snaps Nadal's Streak

By Richard Evans
Rafael Nadal did not want to repeat himself after he had lost the Italian title he had held for three successive years. He did not want to appear a sore loser but, in reality, there was no chance of that.

Nadal, who lost here today to compatriot Juan Carlo Ferrero 7-5, 6-1, has been saying it loud and clear ever since the Miami, before the compressed and impossibly tough European clay court season ever started. He has been saying that the calendar during this part of the year is ridiculous for any top clay court player trying to grab all the ranking points he can on his favored surface. He told us after winning Monte Carlo two weeks ago; he told us again after winning Barcelona on Sunday.

And when he woke up after that last victory and was unable to put his blistered feet on the carpeted floor of his hotel room, he knew he had been right. But, of course, he was asked his opinion on the matter anyway and, in answer to whether he would try once more to talk to ATP boss Etienne de Villiers, he said, "I have nothing more to say to this man. We spoke to him last year, trying to understand why he is doing these things but it is impossible; it is a waste of time. But when I lose I do not want to talk about these things. I want to congratulate Juan Carlos. He is a fine player and a nice person and this was an important win for him."

Nadal, whether winning or losing, is a credit to this sport and it was sad to see him so obviously hobbled by his condition against Ferrero. He had the trainer on at the end of the first set to tear great strips of taping off his feet and apply more antisceptic cream but it was no good.

"I could only put my foot down like this, at an angle, because of the pain, no?" he explained after his 17-match Rome winning streak came to an end. "I try to try my best but it was impossible."

In the end, Ferrero just had to put the ball out of Nadal’s reach and the man who has covered acres of court these past few weeks, reaching balls that no one else would even contemplate chasing, could only stand and stare balefully at the ball as it sped away from him.

This unexpected defeat has ruined the chance of another Nadal final against Roger Federer which is sad for the tournament; sad for tennis and very bad for the image of the ATP. To be fair to those who try to make sense of the highly complicated calendar, finding a solution to the problem that Nadal and other clay courters feel so strongly about is far from easy, especially when Miami is played a week later. Next year, of course, the situation will be exacerbated by Madrid moving into May from October with a ten day men’s and women’s event to take the place of Hamburg which is being pushed into a slot after Wimbledon. However, even that is dependent on the ATP successfully defending the lawsuit, slated for Delaware in July, against the German Federation who are furious at the treatment they have received from the men’s governing body.

But, in the meantime, Nadal is heading home to Mallorca for a well earned rest. "I will try to go with best feelings to Hamburg," said Nadal. Our best feelings are with him.

Ferrero will now play Stanislas Wawrinka who defeated Britain’s Andy Murray 6-2, 7-6 under the lights on Court One.

Source: http://www.tennisweek.com/news/fullstory.sps?inewsid=2134784