Re: [Prediction] New World #1 Rafael Nadal Not the Best Player in the World!?
I hope Nadal does better than Federer at TMC. For all the obvious reasons, that may not be the likeliest thing, but certainly not impossible. Assuming he does outperform Federer at TMC, the AO will be his real chance. He can pick up a few points pre-AO because he didn't win Chennai, and if he can defy the odds and actually win the AO, he will be within sneezing distance of #1, or may even be there already. If he takes #1 by winning the AO, then he holds 2 slams to Federer's 2, and will have better results outside of slams (3 MS shields(including 1 on hardcourts) to Fed's 2, ).
Basically, if he finally gets that elusive hardcourt slam in Australia next year, there is no subjective or objective argument that can be made that he does not deserve the #1 ranking. Tough part will be doing it. His non-slam results have often been comparable to Federer's, but he's always missing that 2nd slam title to even things up.
Alternately, if say Nalbandian were to take out Federer in the quarters and Nadal in the final, he'd still be pretty close. If he got to it that way, he'd be holding 1 slam to Federer's 2, in which case all kinds of arguments could be made that he didn't deserve it...Another possibility is that 2008 follows the current trend of things, with Nadal doing okay in Australia and New York, winning everything on clay, and losing to Federer in the Wimbledon final. If this happens and he can spruce up his summer hardcourt swing and indoor season results, he, again, would have a shot at #1 at about this time next year.
...so who knows...
I really hope he does it in Australia though. Time's not exactly running out for the 21 year old, but it does seem like it's past time to win big on concrete!
