RAFAEL Nadal has two major achievements so far this year – he took the Wimbledon title by beating Roger Federer in an epic final and stacking up enough wins to unseat the Swiss player atop the rankings.
Now the 22-year-old Spaniard is aiming to add Olympic glitter to his trophy room which already brims with the laurels of 30 titles, including five grand slam events and 12 Masters Series victories.
"I'm going to really enjoy the Olympic atmospher
e, I'm sure, and I'm out to try and win a medal," admitted Nadal. "It's an honour to represent your country and I look forward to taking part," he added before catching a 13-hour flight to the Chinese capital.
In addition to Wimbledon and the French Open, Nadal has won the Conde de Godo, Hamburg, Monte Carlo, and Queen's tournaments this year.
In two weeks, Nadal will automatically appear on the rankings as No1, breaking Federer's record 235 consecutive weeks tenure. "I feel pretty much as I did yesterday morning, or last year," he said. "It's another step in a long process which has taken a lot of very hard work and which really started coming together about four or five years ago."
Nadal, who began playing tennis in the village of Manacor on his native Mallorca, said no-one should underestimate Federer's ability to fight back. "The whole world needs to continue seeing him as the enormous champion he has been and quite definitely still is," Nadal said.
Nadal's on-court style has been called muscular and aggressively physical compared to Federer's, which is referred to as elegant and athletically economical in movement.
"People tend to talk about how my style leads to injuries, but I think they have got that wrong. I have only really had one troubling injury and that was in 2005."
Nadal suffered a persistent left foot injury after playing at the Madrid Masters which forced him to withdraw from several matches, including the 2006 Australian Open. Blisters have also been a recurring problem.
"I have worked hard on my game and feel much better about my ability to cover the court," said Nadal.
Until this year he had been considered a clay-court specialist, but proved a point by winning on grass at Queen's and Wimbledon. "Wimbledon has been an incredibly hard experience for me, but this year I managed to do it better. I won it."
The full article contains 409 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
