Future Tennis Stars

In what should come as no surprise, Rafael Nadal has been suffering from a foot injury since 2005. Nadal’s coach and uncle, Tony Nadal, said the problem is serious but would not comment on whether the injury is career threatening.

“I prefer not to answer. It’s very serious. I don’t know [if it’s career-threatening]. I’ll let the doctor reply to that. He has to take a lot of precautions when he plays.”

The secret to Nadal’s success is that he is so quick and his game is almost violently physical. For the last few years, Nadal has been strong in the first half of the season then his results take a noticeable hit in the second half.

Nadal won the French Open for the third time this year, along with 5 other titles. His last big result was pushing Federer to 5 sets in the Wimbledon final.

The question then begs, if Rafael Nadal’s career is cut short due to injury, who then would be able to compete with Roger Federer?

Two days ago, David Ferrer beat Rafael Nadal. Today, he gave Nadal a gift. Nadal beat third ranked Novak Djokovic 6-4, 6-4 to keep Djokovic winless in round robin play in his first trip to the Masters Cup. Still, Nadal needed a Ferrer win to keep Richard Gasquet from having a chance to move into the semifinals. Ferrer did just that and beat Gasquet 6-1, 6-1 in a rout.

Andy Roddick already made the semifinals and will face Roger Federer on Friday. If Federer wins, he will be the last semifinalist no matter if Davydenko wins as Federer has an edge in sets won.

Roger Federer drew Andy Roddick, Fernando Gonzalez and Nikolay Davydenko in the Red Group when the Masters Cup draw was selected on Wednesday.

The Gold Group, which opens play on Sunday, includes Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, David Ferrer and Richard Gasquet.

Federer is of course the favourite to win his fourth Masters Cup title. Nadal isn’t in top form and Federer’s draw is similar to that of the US Open when he beat Roddick and Davydenko en route to the title.

Djokovic is also a threat and a rematch of the US Open finals is most likely what we will get in just over a week.