Rafael Nadal raising his level of play to new heights

With only 20 years of age, the young spaniard continues to impress people with his flamboyant style of play and having all the talent in the world to back it up. He has now amassed 60 consecutive wins on clay, simply an amazing feat. After his win on sunday against Roger Federer, in the Final of the French Open, which by the way he won for the second year in a row, he appears to be almost unbeatable...at least on this surface.

After a tremendous 2005 campaign, it seemed as tough it would be nearly impossible to top himself off, and with an injury that sidelined him for the first 5 weeks of the year, things did not look good for Rafael Nadal. Despite coming off a long layoff (for a tennis player), he looked sharp and quickly began climbing up the ATP champions race. After a decent start to the season, he took off once the tournaments on clay came around.

Carrying a 34 match winning streak on clay from last year, he knew good times were ahead, but even for him it would be hard to imagine what he would accomplish. Nadal easily won the Monte Carlo Master Series, dismantling quality players such as Guillermo Coria, Gaston Gaudio and his archi-rival Roger Federer. He would proceed to win the tournaments at Barcelona and the Master Series at Rome, defeating Federer in an epic 5 set final. All of a sudden he found himself within 1 match of surpassing the great Guillermo Vilas for most consecutive wins on clay (53), and break the record he did... and some more.

His streak now sits at 60 wins on clay, but that will be put on hold for now. The grass season is here, and it is here where he has struggled in the past. While he has raised his game to a point where many could not even dream to reach, he is very beatable in grass. However time is on his side, after all we quickly forget he just turned 20 years of age. It will be essential for him to fair better on the temple of tennis that we call the Wimbledon Tournament. A quick exit last year, was the lone glitch on his otherwise impecable record.

Even his peers are raving about him. A recent interview revealed that even the almighty Federer is having trouble figuring out the young mallorcan's game. When asked whether he thought his rivalry with Nadal would prolong for many years to come, he answered "Rivalry? What Rivalry? as far as im concerned a rivalry must have wins on both sides, and lately Rafa has been the only one getting them against me." As we all know, the swiss star will rarely express a level of inferiorness to another player, but at least for now, Nadal has got him puzzled.

When its all said and done, and his career is over, where will Nadal sit on comparison to players like Jimmy Connors, John McEnroe, Bjorn Borg or Ivan Lendl? It will be key for him to stay away from severe injuries, eventually time will show just how far he can go. For now, let's sit back and enjoy the spectacular tennis being put on display by the young spaniard.