Inexorable Nadal

Having won the last four French Open titles, Rafael Nadal is the red-hot favourite to make it five in a row this year, with no-one seemingly having the slightest chance of keeping up with the world No1 on his favourite surface. "Invincible, me? No!" Rafael Nadal may have put on his most convincing voice when asked about his status as the undisputed king of clay, but nobody was about to believe him. A few people were saying at the start of the clay season that Rafa could not possibly keep winning Roland Garros, year in, year out. The Majorcan lefty had a serious foot injury, so the rumours went. He would have to keep the rallies short, he was not as strong as he was in previous years, he had off-court problems to deal with … But at the end of the day, it turned out that nothing had changed. Nadal was still Nadal, Roland Garros is still his own private kingdom and he is not about to relinquish his crown after winning a fourth consecutive title. Only one man before him had achieved such a feat – the legendary Swede Björn Borg. And what is more, Nadal is coming to the tournament as the world No1 for the first time, having added two further Grand Slam titles to his trophy cabinet away from clay, at Wimbledon last year and the Australian Open in January 2009, to make himself a more complete player. This amazingly was fuel for some of the doubters, saying that now that Rafa can win on any surface, he will most likely be less dominant on clay! Monte Carlo and Barcelona gave the lie to that supposition in no uncertain terms, with the man from Manacor securing his fifth consecutive title at both events to set an incredible double record. He may only be 22, but Nadal has already written his own chapter in the history of the sport. And who, if anyone, will ever be able to put an end to this chapter and knock the undisputed king of clay off his pedestal? Plenty would like to give it a try… First among the pretenders to the crown is Andy Murray. For the second year in a row, the up-and-coming Scotsman has taken on two-time French Open finalist Alex Corretja to coach him in the finer points of playing on this, the slowest of surfaces. In Monaco, the world No4 already showed signs of having taken Corretja’s wise words on board, so much so that Nadal himself was forced to admit that "(Murray) was showing some very interesting aspects in terms of tactics". Unfortunately, the Scotsman could only keep it up for five games, but nevertheless: "he was playing it high and soft, and in these conditions, it was tough to attack him”, the world No1 continued. “I really had to be patient." Is high and soft the way to play Nadal therefore? It is certainly the route chosen by Novak Djokovic, the other person to have posed the Spaniard a few problems on clay. This is all well and good however, but can any player keep this up over three sets, let alone the five often required at a Grand Slam? "Playing Nadal on clay is a challenge in itself," the Serbian former Australian Open winner admitted. "You need to get your tactics right. But I really do think that one day, I'll be able to beat him on this surface." On clay perhaps, but at Roland Garros ? As things stand, there is an enormous weight of evidence in favour of Nadal. Since 2005 and taking into account his victory in Barcelona on 26 April, the lefty has played 146 matches on clay and won no fewer than 142 of them! He is unbeaten at the French Open where he has never even been taken to five sets. Every match in his inexorable march to a fourth title last year was over in three straight sets. He may not be "invincible". But at the moment, he certainly looks it…