NADAL VS FEDERER

NADAL:Rafael "Rafa" Nadal Parera: (born June, 1986, in Manocar, Mallorca) is a professional tennis player. As of June 2007, he is ranked second in the world. He is a three time Grand Slam champion, having won three consecutive French Open singles titles (2005-07). Nadal is undefeated in his career at the French, having won all 21 matches he has played en route to his three championships. Nadal holds the longest winning streak among male players on a single surface in the open era. From April 2005 to May 2007, he won a record 81 consecutive clay court matches.

Streaks and records

• Nadal holds the male open-era record of most consecutive victories on a single surface. Between his losses to Igor Andreev in April 2005 and Roger Federer in May 2007, he won 81 clay court matches. He thus surpassed John McEnroe's 75-match streak record on indoor carpet.
• Nadal has been ranked No. 2 for more consecutive weeks than any player in the history of the computer rankings maintained by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP).
• Nadal is one of only two people to win the French Open on the first attempt (2005), the first being Mats Wilander in 1982. By successfully defending his title in 2006 & 2007, he is a perfect 21-0 in the tournament.
• At age 19 years, 1 month, and 22 days, Nadal became the third teenager in the history of the ATP computer rankings (since 1973) to reach World No. 2, joining Boris Becker (age 18 years, 9 months, and 17 days) and Björn Borg (age 18 years, 10 months, and 2 days) as the only teenagers to be ranked No. 2.
• Nadal has held two winning streaks of at least 20 consecutive matches. The first was a 24-match winning streak in mid-2005. The second was a streak of 26 matches dating from his loss to Carlos Moya in March 2006 to his retirement due to injury in the quarterfinals of the Queen's Club tournament against Lleyton Hewitt in 2006.
• Nadal is the only player who has won Grand Slam singles finals against World No. 1 Roger Federer. Those wins came at the 2006 French Open by a score of 1-6, 6-1, 6-4, 7-6 and the 2007 French Open by a score of 6-3, 4-6, 6-3, 6-4. Federer is 10-2 in Grand Slam singles finals (including a victory over Nadal in the 2006 Wimbledon final).
• Nadal is the only active player who currently has a winning head-to-head record against Federer after five matches. He currently enjoys a 8-4 advantage (6-1 on clay, 2-2 on hard courts, and 0-1 on grass).
• Nadal's win in the 2007 French Open final made him the first player since Bjorn Borg in 1978-81 to win the French Open in three consecutive years.

ROGER FEDERER(born August 8, 1981) is a Swiss tennis professional, currently ranked World No. 1. Many experts and his own peers believe Federer may be the greatest player in history.

Federer has won ten Grand Slam men's singles titles in 32 appearances, three Tennis Masters Cup titles, and 13 ATP Masters Series titles. In 2004, the Swiss became the first man since Mats Wilander in 1988 to win three of four Grand Slam singles tournaments in the same year: the Australian Open, Wimbledon and U.S. Open. In 2006, he became the first and only man to repeat this feat and the first man in the open era to win at least ten singles tournaments in three consecutive years (2004 to 2006). He is also the only player to have won both the Wimbledon and U.S. Open singles titles in three consecutive years (2004-2006). In 2007, when Federer won his third Australian Open title, he became the only male player to have won three separate Grand Slam tournaments three times.

Federer has been ranked No. 1 in the world since February 2, 2004, and holds the all-time record for most consecutive weeks as the top-ranked male player.On April 2, 2007, he was named Laureus World Sportsman of the Year for a record third consecutive time.

Streaks and records:

• In 2001, Federer ended Pete Sampras's 31-match winning streak at Wimbledon in the fourth round of the tournament.

• By winning Wimbledon in 2003, Federer joined Stefan Edberg, Pat Cash, and Björn Borg as the only players to win both the juniors' and men's Wimbledon championships.

• Federer's victory at the 2004 U.S. Open marked the first time in the open era that anyone had won his first four Grand Slam singles finals. He eventually won his first seven Grand Slam singles finals before losing to Rafael Nadal in the 2006 French Open final. Only Federer, American Richard Sears, and Briton William Renshaw won their first seven Grand Slam singles finals. As of February 2007, Federer had won ten of eleven Grand Slam singles finals, the highest percentage among the twelve players with at least eight career Grand Slam singles titles.

• With his victory over Marcos Baghdatis at the 2006 Australian Open, Federer became the first man to win three consecutive Grand Slam titles since Sampras in 1993-94.

• By winning the 2006 U.S. Open, Federer became the only male player (and the only player in the open era) to win both Wimbledon and the U.S. Open in the same year for three consecutive years.

• Federer has won four consecutive men's singles titles at Wimbledon (2003-2006), a feat accomplished only by Borg and Sampras in the open era. In the 28 matches Federer played at Wimbledon during those years, he dropped just five sets. In comparison, Borg and Sampras lost fifteen and fourteen sets respectively over a similar four-year period.

• Federer is the only male tennis player to have won eight Grand Slam singles titles in three years (2004-2006).

• By reaching the singles semifinals at the 2007 Australian Open, Federer broke Ivan Lendl's previous record of ten consecutive Grand Slam semifinal appearances with his eleventh consecutive semifinal appearance. He subsequently extended this record to twelve when he reached the semifinals of the 2007 French Open.

• Federer in 2006 became the first man since Rod Laver in 1969 to reach the final of all Grand Slam singles tournaments during a calendar year.

• By reaching the singles final of the 2007 French Open, Federer reached his eighth consecutive Grand Slam singles final and broke the previous record of seven consecutive Grand Slam singles finals by Australian Jack Crawford and set at Wimbledon in 1934.

• With winning the 2007 Australian Open, Federer won his sixth Grand Slam singles title in his last seven attempts, equalling Laver's accomplishment.

• At the 2007 Australian Open, Federer became just the fourth man in the open era to win a Grand Slam singles title without dropping a set.

• By winning the 2007 Australian Open, Federer won his tenth career Grand Slam singles title and tied American Bill Tilden for fifth place on the all-time Grand Slam singles titles leaderboard.

• By winning the 2007 Australian Open, Federer became the only male tennis player to win three different Grand Slam singles tournaments at least three times each (Australian Open: 3 times; Wimbledon: 4 times; U.S. Open: 3 times).

• By winning the 2007 Australian Open, Federer became the first man in the open era to win three straight Grand Slam singles titles twice in his career (2005 Wimbledon, 2005 U.S. Open, and 2006 Australian Open; 2006 Wimbledon, 2006 U.S. Open, and 2007 Australian Open).

• Federer won his 11th consecutive Grand Slam singles match in straight sets when he defeated Mikhail Youzhny in the fourth round of the 2007 French Open. This tied John McEnroe's open era record for the most consecutive straight set victories in Grand Slam singles tournaments.

• Federer won his 36th consecutive Grand Slam singles set when he won the first set in the quarterfinals against Tommy Robredo at the 2007 French Open. This broke McEnroe's open era record for the most consecutive sets won in Grand Slam singles tournaments.

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