Surely this seals it for Nadal as being one of the tennis greats, even if he never wins another title ever again!
Tommorow Nadal is officially the world no.1, deposing Federer from the top.
Even Federer who is considered one of the greatest tennis players ever to live and held the no. 1 spot for 4 consequtive years hasn't been able to achieve those big 3 titles in a row.
Although Federer did win a gold medal in the doubles, it's probably only a consolation for his real target.
Hard courts are his weakest surface, but still it would be a brave man who would bet against Nadal winning the US open too.;)

It's a slight surprise to see the big guns actually trying to win this - they often don't, and people like Fish walk away with the gold medal - but, the form Nadal's been in for the last four months, if he tries it's for damn sure nobody else is going to stop him.

Graf is the only tennis player ever to hold all four major titles and the Olympic crown at the same time - admittedly, that's mostly because when Navratilova was in her pomp there was no Olympic tennis - so it'll be interesting to see if he can tack on the US, and the Australian next year. At this point it's hard to see how he can be stopped, unless someone breaks both his legs with a baseball bat.

Surely this seals it for Nadal as being one of the tennis greats, even if he never wins another title ever again!
Tommorow Nadal is officially the world no.1, deposing Federer from the top.
Even Federer who is considered one of the greatest tennis players ever to live and held the no. 1 spot for 4 consequtive years hasn't been able to achieve those big 3 titles in a row.
Although Federer did win a gold medal in the doubles, it's probably only a consolation for his real target.
Hard courts are his weakest surface, but still it would be a brave man who would bet against Nadal winning the US open too.;)


The thing with the Olympics is that the players only get a chance to win it every 4 years, so its very very different to all the other tournament they play in which come round every season. So at best a player is really only ever going to get 2 pops at winning the Olympics in their career

Personally i think Federer would rather win Roland Garros than the Gold at the Olympics.

Nadal is having a good year and finally knocks Federer off the top spot in the rankings.

It's a slight surprise to see the big guns actually trying to win this - they often don't, and people like Fish walk away with the gold medal - but, the form Nadal's been in for the last four months, if he tries it's for damn sure nobody else is going to stop him.

Graf is the only tennis player ever to hold all four major titles and the Olympic crown at the same time - admittedly, that's mostly because when Navratilova was in her pomp there was no Olympic tennis - so it'll be interesting to see if he can tack on the US, and the Australian next year. At this point it's hard to see how he can be stopped, unless someone breaks both his legs with a baseball bat.

Well I think this year in particular the big guns, Nadal, Djokovic and obviously Federer were trying to win it because they had a point to prove.
Who is the best?
Each of those 3 knew that if one or both the other competitors didn't go for it, then it would be a relatively easy weeks work to pick up a gold medal.
I doubt, none of the 3, especially Federer wanted to give any free acolades to their main rivals.
Nadal is now the first man in the top 5 in the world to have taken the title.
I suspect that the tennis Olympic gold has gained in prestige over night, now that Nadal has the title, rather like the Queens club tournament, Nadal and Djokovic have restored its prestige, I mean Andy Roddick 4 time champion!:hihi:

As for Stefi Graf, its often easy to overlook how dominant she was in the womans game, particuarly following the legend of Navratalova and being upstaged by Monica Seles dramatic bow out of competitive tennis, by some crazed knife weilding fan, just when it looked like the Graf rivalry looked to be getting every bit as intense as Nadal's is with Federer.

Federer for his part wanted desperately to stop the rot and getting an Olympic gold would have gone some way in doing that, not because the all conquering Nicolas Massu was the previous gold medalist, but because he would have had to beat Nadal or Djokovic or both to get it.

So at best a player is really only ever going to get 2 pops at winning the Olympics in their career



And Federer has had his 2 chances!
I don't think,when he said he wanted to win the gold medal, he actually meant the doubles!;)

Perhaps, Federer knew that it just wasn't going to be, and entered the doubles tournament just to get some silverware (Yep, I know it was gold) from the Bejing games.
Luckily for Federer, Nadal didn't elect to team up with Djokovic to thwart even the doubles glory!:hihi: