GOLDEN NADAL ON TOP OF THE WORLD August 19, 2008

A day after winning an Olympic gold medal in Beijing, Nadal officially
unseated Roger Federer to become the world's No.1 tennis player when
the ATP rankings came out overnight.

Federer had been atop the rankings for 237 weeks since February 2004,
but Nadal has won eight tournaments this year and heads into next
week's U.S. Open as the favorite to win his third straight Grand Slam.

Federer has won the last four U.S. Opens.

Nadal ensured he'd rise to No.1 two weeks ago when he reached the
Cincinnati Masters semifinals and Federer lost early.

Nadal had been No.2 for a record 160 consecutive weeks since July 2005.

He has won 38 of his last 39 matches on tour and beat Federer in the
finals of the French Open and Wimbledon this summer.

Nadal beat Fernando Gonzalez of Chile in straight sets on Sunday to win
a gold medal for Spain in men's singles.

Federer continued his yearlong slump when he lost in the quarterfinals
to James Blake, though he did take a gold medal for Switzerland in
doubles with partner Stanislas Wawrinka.

Since the ATP rankings began in 1973, Nadal was the 24th man to become
No.1., and the third Spaniard after Carlos Moya (1999) and Juan Carlos
Ferrero (2003).




--- In carlosmoya2@yahoogroups.com, bev29x <no_reply@...> wrote:
>
> Congratulations to Rafael Nadal on winning the Olympic Gold medal AND
> becoming No.1 in the world this week. Well-deserved!
>
> RAFA RISES TO WORLD NO.1
>
> Rafael Nadal is officially on top of the tennis world. The Spaniard
> yesterday replaced Roger Federer as the new
> ATP world No.1 after holding the No.2 position for a record 160
> consecutive weeks. This came only one day after
> he defeated Chilean Fernando Gonzalez to secure a gold medal at the
> Beijing Olympics Tennis Event. Nadal's achievements this year are
> phenomenal. He has a 70-8 win loss record including two Grand Slams,
> eight ATP
> titles and a gold medal. With the US Open and end of year Tennis
> Masters Cup in Shanghai still to come in 2008, there yet may be more
> success to come for the 22 year old.
>