Headingley Joined: 27/05/2007 Posts: 27 Favourite Category: Body & Soul

Are you serious? How can being better than another on just one surface make them a better player overall? Anyway, Nadal's unbeaten run was ended by Federer at the Hamburg Masters.

Question Author: SamIAm_123 Joined: 22/03/2007 Posts: 46 Favourite Category: Adverts

Nadal is only 20 years of age. Surely this must say something the fact that he has perfected playing on the clay surface at such a young age? He has also won the French open twice.

By comparison, Nadal won his first in 2005 when he was 18 or 19 and has since won 81 matches unbeaten. Federer won his first grand slam tournament in 2003 when he was 21.

Headingley Joined: 27/05/2007 Posts: 27 Favourite Category: Body & Soul

Oh, there is no question that Nadal is a very good player but you cannot compare age statistics to decide who is the better player - Boris Becker won Wimbledon at age 17 in 1985 but was not the best player in the world until 1991.

Likwise, until Nadal reaches number one in the rankings he cannot be considered a better player than the player whose top position he has usurped. It is, perhaps, debatable whether Nadal will be able to take over from Federer within the next few years - providing injuries do not enter the equation.

mycats Joined: 02/05/2006 Posts: 2211 Favourite Category: Body & Soul

Fererer is arguably one of the best players ever, I really like him. I do think that Nadal is gonna be amazing though, he is already an outstanding player and as SamlAm said - he is only 20. Looks like he will be Federer successor?

Ellipsis Joined: 16/06/2006 Posts: 23 Favourite Category: Education

Nadal beat Federer quite easily today in the French Open where, incredibly, he has never lost.

Federer is definitely the better player overall and is up there with the tennis greats. Nadal will possibly become the best ever player on clay - but does not appear to have the ability to to make it on every surface.

osprey Joined: 08/02/2006 Posts: 1056 Favourite Category: Media & TV

Just looking at the result would suggest that Nadal won very easily but that hides the fact that Federer made more unforced errors in the final than I have seen him make in an entire tournament. If he had converted even a quarter of those into winners then the result may well have been completely different, given the stage of the match when those errors were made.