Rafael Nadal – Man of clay

History repeated itself for the seventh time, at Court Philippe Chatrier, on the fifteenth day of the 2013 French Open. The unquestionable king of clay (statistics being highly in his favour), Rafael Nadal, proved once again that whoever crosses his path at Roland Garros (read: any clay court) shall be defeated ruthlessly. David Ferrer, the perfect opponent to test Nadal’s grit, was thrashed completely, with Nadal’s dominance being clearly seen. Ferrer, who had won all the matches preceding the Final in straight sets, was at the mercy of his opponent in the Final and was defeated in a similar fashion 6-3, 6-2, 6-3, getting a taste of his own medicine. Thus, Nadal established that he is virtually unparalleled on a clay court till the time he retires and his competitors will have to perform much better to defeat him.

Despite being plagued by multiple problems that forced him to go on a hiatus of nearly 8 months after 2012?s Roland Garros, Nadal made a very strong comeback in 2013. He won the Brasil Open, Abierto Mexicano Telcel, Indian Wells Masters, Barcelona Open Banco Sabadell, Mutua Madrid Open and the Rome Masters, which provided him ample practice and gave him a morale boost before the French Open. He eventually defended his Singles title (after a few hiccups in the semi-finals), winning it for the 5^th consecutive time, and the 8^th time overall.

Nadal has broken an all-time record of the highest number of French Open Singles titles won by any player, and also the highest number of titles of the same Grand Slam won by any player, edging ahead of close rival Federer, who has 7 Wimbledon titles to his name. His Roland Garros record of 59-1 (his only loss coming in 2008, to Robin Soderling) stands unparalleled, with no player even coming close. He is also the only male player to have won the French Open on the first attempt. Nadal’s total number of career titles (in singles) stands at 57, which includes 12 Grand Slam, 24 ATP World Tour Masters 1000 and 14 ATP World Tour 500 titles.He also won the 2008 Olympic gold medal in singles, and in 2010, completed a Career Golden Slam, being only the second male player to achieve the same after Andre Agassi. Though his doubles game isn’t as popular as his singles game, he still holds 8 titles (but none of them being a Grand Slam title). He is also very successful in the Davis Cup, his team (Spain) having won four times. His rivalries with Federer, Djokovic and Murray are notable, the matches turning out to be close encounters on quite a few occasions, attracting a large audience and massive media coverage for every match.

In spite of his magnificent performance at Roland Garros in 2013, Rafael Nadal is currently ranked No. 5, his ranking having fallen from the top four positions for the first time since 2005, the easily fathomable reason for it being his absence from professional tennis in the latter half of 2012. This absence gave a huge advantage to his rivals, who seized this golden opportunity and moved ahead on the points table after competing in several ATP tournaments. But they have a lot to fear as he has returned very strongly, more aggressive than ever, and going by his recent game, it won’t be long before the gap is bridged.Nadal has proved himself worthy of being called the King of Clay, and is undoubtedly one of the greatest tennis players of all time. He has beaten several records, set completely new ones, and with loads of fuel left to play tennis actively, we can expect more from him in the coming few years and it’s almost certain that he won’t disappoint us. Vamos, Rafa!