Article indiatimes.com 29-12-06

Rage of Rafa PRAJWAL HEGDE TIMES NEWS NETWORK If there’s going to be a threat to Roger Federer’s domination of world tennis in the new year the first rumblings will come from Chennai, where the season-opener kicks off on January 1. As the artful Swiss pointed out recently, this is a very talented generation of players — Andy Roddick, Nikolay Davydenko, David Nalbandian, Rafael Nadal, James Blake, Marat Safin and Lleyton Hewitt. What he forgot to mention is that there’s just one among them with the temperament to back the tennis that can lay siege to the Federer fortress - Nadal, the feisty Spaniard. The 20-year-old world number two never fails to take his cap off to the indomitable Federer whenever quizzed about their rivalry. But, no matter what Nadal says he along with the irreverent Argentine David Nalbandian are the only two among tennis’ top guns, who are not in awe of the number one. Nadal leads Federer 6-3 in career head to heads and this year he upset the world number one four times in six meetings. The wins are propelled by the innate belief that he can beat anybody. On clay this year, he undid Federer with the oldest trick in the book — the extra ball. Nadal enjoyed a dream summer. In February, he shocked Federer in Dubai to win the title. He then turned the early confidence booster into a record-breaking run with back-to-back title wins in Monte Carlo, Barcelona, Rome and then finally the French Open in Paris. At Wimbledon, on grass, he stormed into the final unannounced and even took a set off Federer in what is largely considered the Swiss artist’s drawing room. Then sudden and inexplicably the wheels came off. Nadal returned to the tour after a month’s break in August and didn’t go beyond the quarters in his next five tournaments. He made the semifinals of the season-ending championships in Shanghai, but only looked a pale shadow of the man who had blazed a trail of his own earlier in the year. The great thing about Nadal, along with his winning mindset, is his indomitable spirit. No matter how bad the result he doesn’t feel the weight of the losses. That may be because he loves the game as much as he relishes the challenge of finding a way to win. In Chennai, he will be looking for early answers to what promises to be a long challenging year.

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