"FINALLY, I CAN SPEAK GERMAN"!!!

It took me a while to warm up to Rafael Nadal and although I am a Federer fan right to the core Rafa has really highlighted his tenacity this week. Facing the prospect of losing his number 2 ranking in the world to Novak Djokovic, and more importantly not 'flying' into the French Open, Nadal dug deep and finally won the Hamburg Open over Roger Federer.

Watching him play against Djokovic and Federer leaves me with a smile for many reasons. Yes, i watched great tennis but for the first time I have been convinced that Nadal's time as the 'King of Clay' is coming to an end. Sure, he won, but Djokovic pushed him hard and for my money is guilty of letting it slip away in the semi-finals especially when he was up 4-0 in the first set; Federer is also guilty being up 5-2 in the first set yesterday with only needing to hold his serve. This leaves me with only one thought: Federer has the talent and is more than capable of beating Nadal on clay but his biggest opponent is his own mind. On more than one occasion he has been up on Nadal and looked like he would run away with it and than 'bang', he collapses. Also having won in Hamburg 4 times means he certainly can win with the best of them on clay. In the end Federer is losing the 'mental' game with Nadal taking full advantage, but once he can beat this demon in his mind then he will win the French - and boy he is so very close!

I often hear about Nadal's record vs Federer but that is a bit of a double-edged sword because Federer can make all the clay finals and then lose to Nadal; if Rafa were to live up to his end of the bargain and make more hard court and grass finals believe me that record would be different. Nonetheless, Roland Garros is 2 weeks away and although Nadal will go in as the favorite I think Federer will be facing someone else in the final!

Could this be the greatest rivalry in the history of the sport? I think so.

We are witnessing the greatest player in the history of the game - Nifty hey!