On Champions and Domination
This is quite special. Nadal has carried on from where he left a year ago on clay. He has already won at Monte Carlo and now has made Nadal-meat of the opponents at Barcelona - ending with 6-4, 6-4 and finally 6-0 versus Tommy Robredo in the Final.
In the process, he has overhauled Bjorg’s record of 46 consecutive wins on Clay. Only the 53 consecutive mark of Guillermo Vilas, who achieved the feat in 1977, remains.
Can Nadal achieve this? The right question should be ‘Who can stop him?’ Federer has been no match for Nadal on clay, yet. No one else looks close to beating him. There has been a lot of talk of how professional tennis has become so much more competitive which is essentially true.
However, a bit of recent history needs to be refreshed. When Sampras retired, people feared that he was the last dominating Champion men’s tennis would see. No sooner had we seen the back of Sampras, we had Federer dominating. Now, we have Nadal breaking past records of a comparitively less competitive era. In other sports as well, the dominations have existed. Case in point - Schumacher in F1 not long ago.
I guess the champions will make their mark, whatever the era. After all, they are champions - or campeón as they say it in Spanish.
Tags: Bjorn Borg, Clay, Guillermo Vilas, Rafael Nadal, Tommy Robredo.
