Is Roger Federer a Threat to Rafael Nadal? Nadal Does not Have Plans of Overtaking Federer, Nadal Still on the Move to Take Djokovic’s Position in the World Rankings
Overtaking Roger Federer is not the top priority of Rafael Nadal.
On Tuesday, Nadal said that he will look back on his professional tennis career with great pride even if he doesn't beat Federer's 17 Grand Slam championship titles, The National reported.
Nadal, who holds the World No 2 position, has 13 titles up his sleeves. His performance this season has just been extraordinarily amazing, to think he just got back from a long-term injury. Furthermore, tennis superstars Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi believe that Nadal can overtake Federer before he retires from playing.
A lot of people thought that Federer is in a sturdy career decline. He lost to Tommy Robredo in the fourth round of the U.S. Open. Federer failed to accomplish a Grand Slam for the first time since 2002.
Maybe Nadal is just taking it one step at a time. "If it happens or not, one thing is for sure, I will be very happy with what I did on this tour," Nadal said when reporters in Beijing asked him how he felt about the comments made by Sampras and Agassi.
Nadal firmly believes that he has to be in perfect condition in order to succeed more in all his upcoming matches. "I did everything in practice," Nadal said. "When you try your best every day, that is all that you can do, I think I did and this is the reason why I will be happy," he added.
Nadal is currently competing in Beijing for the 2013 China Open. He is definitely eyeing on the Novak Djokovic's World No 1 rank because he just booked his spot in the quarterfinals after beating Santiago Giraldo and Philipp Kohlschreiber for his first and second matches, respectively. If Nadal reaches the finals of the Association of Tennis Professionals 500 (ATP 500) event, he will take over Djokovic's position of the world rankings.
Nadal will be facing Fabio Fognini in the last eight. It will be really exciting to find out if Nadal makes it to the finals and get another title added to his record of tennis achievements.