To Be or Not to Be... The Best Tennis Player of All Times

Once again, Rafa gets to bite his trophy. As the number one ranked men's player in the world, this is Rafael Nadal's ninth Grand Slam title yet this is only his first win at the US Open. This victory is his third of the year, winning Wimbledon (England) and Roland Garros (France) earlier in the season.

Nadal's opponent was number two ranked, Novak Djokovic, who managed to knock out Roger Federer in the semi-finals. Nadal started out on fire; he went over 40 consecutive points without having an unforced error. But then he had to put up a fight as Djokovic broke him more times in the one match than he had been broken in all of his matches combined and caused him to lose his first set of the tournament.

As Rafael Nadal received another Grand Slam title, the all-too-familiar debate about whether or not he could become the best player in tennis, arises. After having played him, Djokovic said, "He has the capabilities already now to become the best player ever. I think he's playing the best tennis that I ever seen him play on hard courts." Whether or not Djokovic is right, this topic has become a popular debate. People claim Nadal stands no chance against Roger Federer, however, I personally believe, he has the capability of being the best and could someday surpass Fed's Grand Slam record. He is already on his way, having just received his ninth title; Nadal is a year younger than Roger was when he got his ninth. In addition to that, Federer was three and a half years older than Nadal is when he completed his career Grand Slam at the French Open in 2009. However, being the modest professional that he is, his opinion on the matter is "talk about if I am better or worse than Roger is stupid, because the titles say he's much better than me." I don't care that his style of play is more intense than most players. He will be around for quite some more time, and in that time he will prove himself even more than he already has.