Rafa Nadal begins his quest on Tuesday to equal a 42-year-old record and holding all four Slams at the same time. Nadal is currently world number one and holds the Wimbledon, Roland Garros and US Open titles.

If successful in Melbourne, the 24 year-old Spaniard will become the first man to possess all four major crowns simultaneously since 1969 against Brazil's Marcos Daniel at the Australian Open.

The last time a man held all four grand slam titles, most following tennis on television watched a slower, more serene version of the game in grainy black and white images.

In today's punishing crash-bang game, to achieve what has proven beyond even the world number one's arch-rival Roger Federer would be a truly astonishing feat.

Nadal, who has been suffering with a bout of flu, has played down his chances of emulating American Don Budge (1938) and Australia's Rod Laver (1962 and 1969) in Melbourne.

"It's almost impossible," insisted the swashbuckling Spaniard. "Most matches are decided by a few balls so it's very difficult to have one player winning everything."

Before the tournament Nadal refused to admit he is feeling any extra pressure at the prospect of achieving Rod Laver's record set.

"Maybe I am only going to have this opportunity (once) in my career. But (it is) not for that reason I (am) going (to) have the pressure. The pressure is like every Grand Slam, you want to play well in the important tournaments. And for me, having the fourth or not is something that is not in my mind," he said.

With Reuters