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Exciting battle on hand

Shafeen Majid
**Monte-Carlo Masters 15th April-22nd April Mutua Madrid Open 6th May-13th May Rome Masters 13TH May-20th May French Open 27th May-1 Oth June
The clay court leg of the ATP tour is underway, and for the first time in a long time, fans of glorious uncertainty in sport are not yawning absently as a result. The essential part of the season is 3 Masters 1000 events and the Grand Slam Roland Garros (formerly “French Open”). Between 2005 and 2011, Rafael Nadal was utterly dominant on the red dirt winning 6 out of 7 French Opens, claiming 14 out of 19 Masters 1000 titles, and accumulating a 205-8 win-loss record. This year, however, world number 1 Novak Djokovic and 16 time Grand Slam winner Roger Federer pose significant challenges to the Spanish King of Clay's supremacy.
Since 2005, Djokovic and Federer are the only men have beaten Nadal more than once on clay. Djokovic was by far the player of the year in 2011 winning 3 Grand Slams, 5 Masters events and boasting a 70-6 record. So far this year, he has been almost as impressive, winning the Australian Open for a third time and retaining the Miami Masters. He has beaten Nadal seven times in a row. Perhaps his greatest unofficial achievement is that he seems to have gotten inside Nadal's head, and made that great player question his own ability to get the job done. Nadal's ability to remain undaunted when confronted by the juggernaut that was Roger Federer in the mid 2000s was unique and ultimately served to actually intimidate Federer. To make such a player cast doubt on himself is no mean feat. Last year on clay, Djokovic won titles at Rome and Madrid, beating Nadal in the final on both occasions in straight sets. Djokovic has the consistency to reach the later rounds of tournaments, and both the game
and mental edge to take down Nadal should the two meet.
Roger Federer finds himself in unfamiliar territory in that he has something to prove to the tennis world. He has slid to 3 in the World Rankings, and doubts have been cast on his ability to defeat his younger rivals and return to the top of the men's game. Federer has reacted well to the doubts. Since the US open, Federer has won a record breaking 6th year end ATP World Championship, 2 Masters titles to take his haul to a record tying 19, and 3 other tour- naments. Against Nadal's relentless consistency, Federer's characteristic smoothness tends to disappear which suggests that his problems are to an extent mental in nature. With Nadal himself encountering psychological problems against Djokovic, Federer might have an opportunity to close his own mental gap with the Spaniard. That, combined with his motivation and current form gives Federer his best chance in years at dethroning Nadal on clay.
Nadal, however, remains the man to beat. Beyond the achievements and statistics has been the seeming inevitability of it all. He is widely regarded as the greatest player of all time on clay, and to watch him play is to understand why that is so. His serve gives him control of points. His return usually equalizes points. So consistent are his groundstrokes off both wings that one might be excused for missing the brilliance of the forehand in particular. Errors are few and far between, and with each shot, he seems to be in a better position than he was the shot before.
Nonetheless, if ever there was a time when Nadal's supremacy was under threat, that time is now. Tennis fans will be following the events at Monte Carlo, Rome, Madrid and Paris with a newfound sense of anything-can-happen.