Tennis Top-10: #8 Rafael Nadal and #7 Serena Williams

8) Rafael Nadal

With apologies to Bjorn Borg, who does have one more Grand Slam than Rafael Nadal, I have to put the Spaniard ahead of him on this list because with a reasonable projection, Nadal could end up the best of all-time. Certainly, with the emergence of Novak Djokovic, Nadal’s dominance has taken a step back—Nadal has been runner up to Djokovic in three consecutive Slam finals—yet only 25 and still the king of clay, I believe Nadal has probably a handful of Grand Slam championships left in the tank.

When Nadal first burst onto the scene he was certainly fun to watch, but many thought he was just a clay-court sensation along the lines of a Gustavo Kuerten or Carlos Moya. While clay is undoubtedly Nadal’s premiere surface, he has won four Grand Slams off the red stuff, including two Wimbledons—grass the most alien surface compared to clay. Not to mention, he won those Wimbledons against the god of grass courts, Roger Federer.

It’s impossible to take in Nadal’s career without looking at what he’s done against Roger Federer, and I will detail said matchup when I reach Federer in the countdown. So for now let it suffice to say that Nadal has dominated his head-to-head battle with Club Fed.

Nadal won the French Open six times in a row, and from 2008-2011 won 7 of the 12 total Grand Slam championships, as well as finishing runner-up twice. His record at the French open is 45-1, and his overall grand slam record is 149-21, an 88% winning rate in the biggest tournaments in the world—a slightly better percentage than Federer (81%) has compiled.

With 10 total Grand Slams, and Federer seemingly unable to beat Djokovic or Nadal right now, Rafa has a chance to make a run at least to surpass Pete Sampras’ 14 Slams and maybe to reach the golden number of 16 currently held by Roger.

To conclude, what makes Rafa so great is his mental toughness. So often tennis is a sport where a player will win the first set 6-2 and then lose the following set. There’s a natural ebb and flow for most tennis players, and momentum fluctuates easily. Nadal, on the other hand, creates his own momentum. Seizes it, and never lets it go. He never relaxes, never gets comfortable, and never gives away even a single point. Nadal is perhaps the best player of all-time at chasing down impossible balls, and not only returning them, but hitting winners. I have never seen a player that could run 50 feet to retrieve a ball and then have the balance, strength, and focus to carve out a perfect forehand winner down the line.

Rafa’s conditioning, athleticism, and mental fortitude are what make him the 8th-greatest tennis player ever, and will also likely move him up this list with time.

#8 Rafael Nadal

7) Serena Williams

I can’t help but start with the negative here. What’s tragic to me about Serena Williams is that she is perhaps the most athletically gifted tennis player I have ever seen, but she has never loved the sport enough to dominate it to her fullest potential. If she was as committed as Federer or Martina Navratilova or Chris Evert, perhaps we have her at the top of our list. For now she sits at 7.

In terms of singles Grand Slam titles, Williams has 13—behind only Margaret Court, Steffi Graf, Evert, Navratilova, and Hellen Wills Moody—and plenty of time left in her playing career. Williams’ 12 Grand Slam doubles titles and 2 mixed doubles Grand Slam championships also speak to her versatility and enormous talent.

Williams is probably the strongest, most powerful woman to ever play and is capable of dominating in a fashion that no other player could, in men’s or women’s history. I compare her a little bit to Shaquille O’Neal. Physically, both were probably the most impressive athlete their respective sport has ever seen, but mentally from both you get excuses, distractions, endorsements, and the allure of being “bigger than the sport.” Serena wants to be an icon, a celebrity as much if not more than she wants to be great at tennis, saying most recently that she doesn’t even love the game. Given all that, her accomplishments are incredible, and it just would have been fun to see what a fully committed Serena could have been.

Another interesting dynamic to Serena’s career has been the presence of her tremendous sister Venus and their overbearing father Richard who casts a shadow over every event in which the ladies participate. Serena vs. Venus finals always were awkward, and some felt almost pre-arranged. Such a dynamic always bothered me; the family seemed to interfere instead of letting Serena and Venus’ career arcs play out naturally.

From 2002-03 she completed the “Serena Slam,” winning the French, Wimbledon, US Open, and Australian Open consecutively. It didn’t happen in a single year, but winning all four big tourneys in a row is a great accomplishment no matter how the calendar divides it.

In 2002 Serena won the US Open and Wimbledon both without dropping a set. This is the kind of domination I always felt Serena could have sustained had she truly committed to tennis and nothing else. Perhaps though, much like other physically dominant athletes, Williams relied on her ability more than her technique, which inevitably leads to inconsistency. And as those types of players age, they don’t have the bag of tricks, the guile, or the variety in their game to continue to thrive.

Serena makes this list because at her best she may have been the most dominant force a tennis court has ever seen. She’s merely seventh because she hasn’t committed to being that force for her whole career.

#7 Serena Williams

--from @AdamHocking

(first image, second image)

Ridiculous Rafa

Rafael Nadal now stands alongside Bjorn Borg as the only other man to win the French Open six times after defeating Roger Federer yet again Sunday.  The win also gives him ten total Grand Slam Titles, fifth on the all-time list and only six behind his counterpart in historic greatness and all-time Slams leader, Federer—all for a man who’s just 25 years old.  It’s more than feasible that he will surpass everyone ahead of him on the list, potentially even the quote-unquote “Greatest of All-Time,” Roger Federer.

The tendency is to want to pigeonhole Nadal, in part to compartmentalize him and in part to preserve our entrenched notion of Federer as the best ever, but Rafa is so much more than a clay court specialist.  He’s won four of the last five Grand Slam championships and now leads the all-time series against Federer 17-8.  Sure Nadal owns a 12-2 advantage on clay, but the series is tied 4-4 on hard courts, and Roger holds a 2-1 career edge on grass.

Federer has never beaten Nadal at the French Open, but Nadal has defeated Federer at Wimbledon, where Federer typically dominates, in what some would say was the best match ever played.  The score in five sets was 6-4, 6-4, 6-7, 6-7, and 9-7.

Thus, no matter where they play, Nadal is at least Federer’s equal, unless it’s on clay where Rafa is vastly superior.  It’s hard to appreciate just how good Nadal is on clay, but consider the fact that Federer cruised through his French Open draw, including knocking off the hottest player in the world, Novak Djokovic, before Nadal dispatched him with relative ease.  Even though this was the best Federer ever played Nadal at Roland Garros, Nadal still only gave up one set in the match.

With Federer it’s easy to see what makes him so great, especially on the faster surfaces.  He’s as superb at the baseline as he is at the net, which complements a devastating serve.  He also moves around the court with exquisite fluidity and is one of the very best shot-makers in tennis history.  This term, “shot-maker,” means simply that Federer has a huge array of spins, angles, and variety in his arsenal.  There truly is no end to the amount of shots he can create on the court.

What makes Nadal great is not as aesthetically obvious, not as artistic as Federer crafting never-before-seen shots as he glides around the court.  Nadal’s greatness comes from his grit, his speed, and most of all, his mental fortitude.  Federer beats players with pure skill; he has more shots, more variety, and more weapons to fire.  While miraculously skilled as well, it’s Nadal’s ability to break his opponent’s spirit that leads to his continual success, especially his championship triumphs over Federer.

Nadal makes his opponent work harder than any player in men’s tennis history.  He is a defensive wizard, returning shots others could only dream of.  It must be frustrating to hit the best shot of your life and have Nadal not just retrieve it, but smack the line with his return.  I paraphrase former Grand Slam champion John McEnroe when he remarked during a certain rally Sunday that Federer just hit five shots that win the point against anybody else, five winners, and Nadal returned every single one of those shots and eventually won the point.

Federer has more Grand Slams and might be prettier to watch, but as his and Nadal's tremendous careers continue to unfold, it’s getting more and more difficult to call Roger the Greatest of All-Time, much less the Greatest of His Own Time.

--from @AdamHocking

(image from rolandgarros.com) 

Courting Greatness

Rafael Nadal’s place in the pantheon of all time tennis greats was secured even before he won the 2010 US Open.  Now, with the career grand slam under his belt—and nine total slam titles—he is perhaps the only man who can be discussed in Roger Federer’s historical universe.

Rafa Rising

I realize Pete Sampras, Bjorn Borg, Bill Tilden, Roy Emerson, Rod Laver, and of course Federer all have more career slams than Nadal.  However, at age 24, Nadal is three slam titles ahead of where the all-time leader, Federer, was at the same age.  Additionally, Nadal completed the career slam at 24; Federer did not accomplish that feat until age 28.

Another factoid to chew on is the all-time head-to-head matchup of Federer and Nadal.  The two have met twenty-one total times with Nadal winning fourteen of those matchups.  In all tournament finals, Nadal leads Federer 12-5.  In grand slam finals, Nadal leads 5-2.

One further note: Nadal joins Steffi Graf and Andre Agassi as the only players in tennis history to achieve the career slam and win a gold medal in the Olympics.

When Nadal first hit the tennis scene, he was viewed as another Spanish dirt-baller who would dominate on clay but could not translate his game to the faster surfaces.  He now has dominated on grass and hard courts and is as ingenious a shot-maker as any player in tennis history.  His mental toughness is unparalleled, his conditioning sets the standard for all other players, and his grace in victory and rare defeat is admirable.  He may be the fastest player on tour, likely is the strongest, and has recovered from serious injuries to regain top form.  The scary thing is he keeps getting better.  His serve has improved dramatically over the past two years, and his net game has become a veritable weapon.

Overcoming Tennis Royalty

Federer has owned the past decade of tennis, but since Nadal has emerged, he has owned Federer, and the two have shared dominance of the tennis landscape.  Nadal need not win another match to secure his legacy, but if he can come close to duplicating his success of the past four years over the next four, he could easily replace Federer as the best player of all time.  Keep in mind that Federer is ancient in tennis terms at age 29.  Although he is still as good as ever, he likely can only maintain his top form for two or three more years.

I urge you to appreciate what we are seeing, because it is nothing short of historic greatness in a refreshingly likable package. We may well be watching the best player in tennis history at the height of his powers in Nadal.  Even better, we get to see him try to take the label of “best ever” from Federer while Federer is still playing.  Watching these two set the bar for each other is a wonderful privilege, akin to a fantasy in which Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods could have shared the same era.  As fans of sport, we are truly lucky to witness this golden era of tennis, and it ain’t over just yet.

--from Adam

(First and third images from zimbio.com, second image from telegraph.co.uk)