The Chris Townsend Show

Cooley's Contemplationsby Scott Cooley, posted on Tue, Aug. 26, 2008

CHANGING OF THE GUARD

For the last five years, a man by the name of Roger Federer has dominated the professional tennis realm. The Swiss star owns 12 Grand Slam singles titles and sits three championships shy of breaking a once thought to be untouchable record of 14 held by Pete Sampras.

Always lost in Federer’s sovereign shadow was a youthful Spaniard named Rafael Nadal. Federer sat atop the ATP rankings for a record 237 straight weeks while Nadal was fixated to the second-tier podium in the king’s court for 160 consecutive seven-day stints.

But the king has officially been dethroned.

Nadal became the first player since 2004, not named Roger Federer, to occupy the top spot in the world rankings after winning the men’s singles gold medal at the Olympics. I’m not quite sure how winning the gold factors into the rankings (many pundits argue that the tennis grading system is an antiquated one), but Nadal is the unquestioned number one player in the world.

Some people will claim they saw this coming. That prediction wasn’t going too far out on a limb however since he WAS second in command for more than three years. But with Novak Djokovic upsetting Federer in the Aussie Open earlier this year, people were calling for the Joker to succeed the King on top of the mountain.

But a determined Capri pants-wearing, wedgie-picking Nadal snatched the scepter away from Federer and relegated Djokovic to pregame impersonations. Nadal had always been the king of clay, the surface he was schooled on that allows him to play to his strengths, but when he was able to defeat Federer on grass in England, it marked the beginning of a new dynasty.

If you did not get to see this Wimbledon Final of historic proportions, please go YouTube it right now and watch the epic unfold. It will set you back a few good hours of the day, but you will witness what some have called the greatest tennis match ever played.

I haven’t watched a massive amount of tennis during my years, but this game that morning had the feel of something unworldly. Both of the best players on the planet with their best stuff ever, dueling it out, stroke by stroke. You almost felt as if, you were in the match.

My wife, who doesn’t normally prefer watching racquets and yellow balls, couldn’t blink for a second while watching and admitted that she didn’t want either player to lose because both were SO good.

But Nadal emerged as the victor and Federer has since yet to recover from this nightmarish 2008 season he has encountered. It is clear to me that the previous top player in the world is on a rapid decline, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Federer squeaked out a couple more titles before it’s all said and done.

If you haven’t had the pleasure of seeing Nadal perform, do yourself a favor and tune into this year’s U.S. Open happening over the next two weeks. This prodigy is a southpaw with uncanny strength that plays without fear.

And I refer to him as a prodigy because he is barely legal. At 22 years of age, Nadal has five Grand Slam titles (4 French, 1 Wimbledon) and at that point in Federer’s career, he had only captured one Slam. Rafa busted onto the ATP scene and played in his first tournament when he was 15 years old. Most kids at that age are popping zits in the mirror and having their parents drive them to movies.

Some fear that Nadal’s durability issues and knee problems will prompt an early exit from the sport. Even if he retires at the ripe age of, let’s say 30, there are eight more years to exude his exemplary status. Nadal has won five Slams since he was 19, so who’s to say he can’t have 10 in eight years, shattering the record that Sampras or Federer might hold.

The only surface Nadal has not wielded success on is the hard court. Many want to see what transpires in this year’s Open at Flushing Meadows before passing over the puppet strings of the tennis world to Rafa. He has never advanced to the semifinal round in the Open, but he had also never won Wimbledon prior to this year.

In my mind, even without a title in the last Slam of ’08, Nadal has solidified himself as the greatest for now and most likely a long time hereafter.