Career Slam for Nadal
Rafael Nadal won his maiden U S Championshipwhen he defeated Novak Djokovic in the finals of 2010 U s Open. With his victory over Djokovic, Nadal achieved the distinction of a Career Slam in mens singles a feat achieved only by three others in the history of Open era. The others to have the achieved the feat are:-
Player and year in which Career Slam was Achieved.
Rod Laver in 1969
Andre Agassi in 1992
Roger Federer in 2009.
Not many know people who watch tennis in India know what exactly is a Career Slam. The definition is like this. If a player wins all four majors i.e. Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon and U S Open in the same year it is called as a "Slam" However if a player wins all four majors in a row but not in the same year it is called as a non-calendar year slam. If a player wins all the four slams at some point of time in their career it is called a Career Slam which is what Nadal achieved by winning the 2010 U S Open. Nadal has a chance to achieve the non calendar year Slam if he wins the Australian Open in 2011. The U S Open title was Nadal's ninth Grand Slam which places him on fourth place in Grand Slams won in Open Era.
Roger Federer 16
Pete Sampras 14
Bjorn Borg 11
Rafael Nadal 9
While Rafael Nadal has plenty of reasons to rejoice as the U S Open Championship apart from a host of other records is Nadal's third consecutive Grand Slam success in 2010 tennis fans in general have a lot of reasons to be disappointed with as 23 of the last 26 Grand Slams have been won either by Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal while others have managed just three between. Only 3 players other than Federer and Nadal who have won Grand Slams are:-
Juan Del Potro 2009 U S Open
Novak Djokovic 2008 Australian Open
Marat Safin 2005 Australian Open
The above mentioned stats in which only 3 players other than Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal have managed to win a Grand Slam does not speak highly of Mens tennis. The bitter truth is that there is no player who can beat Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal in the same tournament and that has been proved yet again when Djokovic who got the better of Roger Federer in a gruelling give setter could not repeat the feat against Rafael Nadal.
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