US open culmination of this year's tennis season

US open is the final  grand slam of the year and it will be taking place at Flushing Meadows, New York from 30th of August to 12th of September. There are four slams in a year viz. Australian, French, Wimbledon and US open. Of these Australian is played on slow hard courts, French on red clay, Wimbledon on green grass and American open on faster hard courts.

What makes today's tennis is so exciting and competitive is that there are top four players and top two of them are one of the all time greats. Last year at the same time Nadal was struggling after coming back from knee injury. Apparently he always had that problem because the way he punishes his body but now he has learn to play with it.

Nadal is the king of clay and with grass courts becoming slower too, he is becoming invincible there  however hard courts still need to be conquered.

There are primarily two reasons behind Nadal's lack of success on these faster courts, first he plays a predominantly baseline game in which he keeps defending and throwing the spinning balls at this opponent and secondly mental barrier.


Nadal's baseline moonballing technique is ineffective on these courts as players taller than him and with more powerful ground strokes can hit the ball harder to hit the winners. Same winners Nadal can easily return on the slower courts of Roland Garros and now to some extent at Wimbledon.

Nadal has been coming to Flushing Meadows for past seven years and has only got two semifinals to boast off which is pretty poor as compared to his record in other slams. This has created a mental block and every time he falls behind in the match makes it harder for him to make a comeback. His movement is not very smooth on these courts and he has still not figured it out. Nadal is a clay court specialist but when he plays on quicker grass courts he stands closure to baseline and he has adapted to the transition.

On the other hand Federer is the emperor who has ruled the tennis world for past seven years. He holds the record for consecutive grand slam appearances, quarter final appearances, semi finals, finals and championships. He is an all time great and that reflects in his playing style too. He hardly ever breaks sweat, moves around the court swiftly and his strokes display variety. He has been in the six consecutive finals of the US open and won five out of them. The only loss came against Del Potro in last year's finals when Federer's first serve deserted him in the final set.

Murray and Djokovic are now pretty used to be seeded third and fourth for long time now. One can ask Nadal as he holds the record for being number two player for longest duration behind Federer. On the positive side Nadal is still young and many people hold the view that he may go past beyond Federer in winning number of slams.


Mind you, it will not be an easy task as Federer leads the all time list with 16 slams in his kitty and Nadal has 8 at present. The story goes that after his loss against Federer in the finals of wimbledon 2007, he broke down in the locker room saying that it was his golden chance to win it and whether he will it again or  not. Then Uncle Toni told him that he will defintely win it as he is the no. 2 player and have many more years to come.

Nadal is an epitomisation of belief and mental strength  and it will be foolhardy to not to count him as one of the favourites.

Murray has started to show some hard court form in the recent matches and is coming as one of the favourties to be a winner. The general view is that only player who can stop Murray being a champion is Federer. Djokovic has had a forgettable 2010 so far but he has the calibre to beat Nadal, Federer and Murray on these hard and fast courts.

In summary, it is going to be a very interesting tournament and Federer once again starting as favorite.However reigning champion Del Potro will sorely be missed.