Tyler Charles

To me, it can only be one thing.  Nadal has worked hard this past year to become a better player on all of the surfaces, and it is this hard work, coupled with his growing mental toughness, that has put him in the position to become the first man since Andy Roddick in 2003 to hold No. 1 and not be named Roger Federer.

Coming into the 2008 season, Rafael Nadal was predominantly known as a clay court specialist. However, if one had watched Nadal’s results in 2007, one would realize that Nadal was becoming a more complete player on grass, with his two straight final appearances at Wimbledon.

Nadal has also shown vast improvement on the hardcourts in 2008, appearing as a semifinalist at the Australian Open and winning the Canadian Masters.

If you take a look at Nadal’s results over the past four years, you will see a trend of constant improvement in the areas of grass court and hard court play, as well as increased play on these surfaces. 

Grass Court

2005: 1-2

2006: 8-2

2007: 8-2

2008: 12-0

Hard Court

2005: 28-6

2006: 25-10

2007: 31-12

2008: 27-6

In addition, a look at his clay court records over the same span of time shows that Nadal is playing in fewer clay court tournaments.

Clay Court

2005: 50-2

2006: 26-0

2007: 31-1

2008: 22-1

Now, I realize that this does not necessarily mean that he is taking time off from the clay courts to work on his game on other surfaces, but one can make the argument that he is allowing extra training time to improve his shot-making abilities on grass and hard courts. 

It is this kind of dedication to his game that has allowed Nadal to increase his playing ability on other surfaces, thus leading to a better record in the tournaments he is entering. 

A look at winning percentages shows that in 2005, Nadal won 89 percent of his matches, and in 2008, he won 90 percent. That doesn't look like much of a difference, until you take into account the previous statistics. 

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