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At the young age of
23, French man Rafael Nadal has achieved what players in their thirties
have not yet confirmed as a goal. Nadal, last week, in Madrid won a
record-breaking 18th ATP World Tour Masters 1000 title as he defeated
rival Roger Federer 6-4, 7-6(5), in a No. 1 vs. No. 2 final Sunday at
the Mutua Madrilena Madrid Open. This was their first meeting after the
2009 Madrid final, which Federer won on the way to claiming his first
French Open.

But Nadal is back
to his best on his favourite surface. He became the first player to win
all three ATP World Tour Masters 1000 clay court tournaments in the
same year, having triumphed at the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters, the
Internazionali BNL d’Italia and Madrid Masters tournaments.

With 28 tour-level
clay-court titles, the Spaniard has moved into level pegging with Ivan
Lendl in fifth place and Ilie Nastase in modern day tennis. Guillermo
Vilas, however, holds the all-time record of 45 titles on clay. If
Nadal stays fit over the next five years, he could yet eclipse Vilas’
record.

On the back of the
win over his main challenger, Federer, Nadal goes to Roland Garros
buoyed by the fact that he is about back to his clay court best.

After the win, an
elated Nadal said: “But I’m pretty happy with the way I played. I’ve
played great this week so I definitely come out of this tournament with
tons of confidence.”

Tons of confidence
aside, his record at Roland Garros is scary. He has lost just once
since he started competing at the tennis Grand Slam since 2005 and that
was to Robin Soderling at last year’s event. He lost in the fourth
round but that defeat can be ascribed to be an injury-induced one. He
had to pull out of the tour to tend his knees and the well reported
case of tendinitis.

Celebrating 30
years of French clay A premiere of the “30 years of contemporary art at
Roland Garros” exhibition was unveiled on Tuesday at the Roland Garros
gallery of the French Tennis Federation (FFT) museum. The exhibition
celebrates the 30th anniversary of the Galerie Lelong and the FFT
working together. For thirty years – since 1980, the two institutions
have commissioned this edition’s tournament poster from a popular
modern day artist. About 50 works – from the past and present, are on
display at the gallery, with the opening attended by FFT President Jean
Gachassin and a whole host of guests including Nalani Malani, who
designed the 2010 poster.

Road to glory

There were a lot of
movements in the new rankings released on Monday and that brought up
the likelihood that there could be a Federer versus Nadal final again
in France. Venus Williams meanwhile made the final in Madrid which gave
her enough points to move to No.2, behind her younger sister, Serena.
So another Williams’ final is a distinct possibility.

Wilfried Tsonga
will count himself a lucky chap with Juan Martin del Potro and Nikolay
Davydenko pulling out, the Mohammed Ali look-alike will be seeded No.8
and will not have to play a fellow top 10 player before the
quarter-finals at the earliest.

1998 winner Carlos
Moya, David Nalbandian and Ivo Karlovic have all had to withdraw
through injury and their places in the main draw have been taken by
Robby Ginepri and Taylor Dent from the US and Japanese Bollettieri
academy player Kei Nishikori.

Also in the male
draws, Fernando Verdasco of Spain seems to be back to his hitting best
after suffering a foot problem at the ATP Masters 1000 tournament in
Madrid earlier in the month. He looked back to his best on Wednesday as
he brushed aside Florent Serra 6-2, 6-2 in his opening match at the
Open de Nice.

France pair of
Richard Gasquet and crowd favourite, Gael Monfils are getting precious
match time on the French Riviera as well, having also made it through
to the quarter-finals. Swedish 2009 French Open finalist Robin
Soderling and Nadal conqueror suffered a shock upset however at the
hands of Belgian Olivier Rochus.

The poster girl of
tennis is back, former world number one; Russian Maria Sharapova will
be in France after almost a year of niggling injuries. She will be at
Roland Garros after playing at the Internationaux de Strasbourg
tournament, brushing aside Bulgaria’s Dia Evtimova 6-3, 6-0.

But on current form, no player on the circuit will fancy their
chances against Nadal in the men’s tournament, this Madrid-born clay
court master is not afraid to get dirty to win.