Few months ago, it was uncertain if Rafael Nadal would ever be back among tennis elites. Around the tennis fraternity, experts spoke of how difficult it would be for him just to compete; let alone be successful at the top level. He had been completely written off due to his constant problems in the knee and he wasn’t being seen as a threat by any player. There was not much hope for him that he would ever be able to make a come back and perform.
But, with his victories at the French and US Open, he has hit back at his critics and has done it in some style. The victory once again proved his zeal to perform and to prove his mettle as a great player. Nadal’s comeback to the top echelon of Tennis has been deemed fit enough by many to be called a miracle, including Nadal himself. The miracle has propelled Nadal into an orbit where he is soaring all by himself. He has made the world including all the so-called experts and critics to stand up and take notice of him as he went on to script one of the strongest comebacks the game has ever seen.
There has been drastic improvements in his hard court play this season, which have always been his most challenging surface. The king of clay, who has won won six titles on his favourite surface this year, has now with the victory at Flushing meadows has won four on hard courts. He has played 22 matches on hard courts this year and won them all.
Now, Nadal has reached a stage of his career where he doesn’t care anymore about the numbers and the rankings. It’s the sheer joy of hunting down his opponents that he relishes on. Putting behind the first round loss at Wimbeldon, he made a stunning comeback by clinching the US Open title at Flushing Meadows. With this kind of form, he is even poised to reclaim the world No 1 ranking before the end of the season – the position that he had lost to Djokovic in 2011 after Wimbeldon. Djokovic (11,120 points) has a marginal lead over Nadal (10,860). With more than 2 months of the tennis season remaining, and access to 4,500 points through November, allows him the freedom needed to explore the limits of his game as he seeks to move himself ahead of his nearest competitors.
If his knees don’t give way and he plays the way he did in the the last couple of months, there could be no stopping Rafael Nadal- who is playing perhaps the best tennis of his career- from regaining the top spot . No matter where and when he does it, Nadal will in all likelihood end the year as the top man in tennis. When that happens, he will have crowned one of the finest comeback seasons in the history of tennis.
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