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Has Nadal’s career already peaked?

Rafael Nadal has electrified men’s tennis since bursting on to the scene in 2005 but there are worrying signs that the Spaniard’s career may already have peaked.

With six grand slam titles to his name already Nadal has already staked his claim as one of the greats of the game but the aura he used to bring to the court has vanished.

In his first round-robin match at the ATP World Tour Finals in London on Monday he was bullied by Sweden’s Robin Soderling, spending virtually the whole match on the run.

It was a similar story on Wednesday against Nikolay Davydenko, with the Spaniard losing his second match in straight sets to leave himself with no chance of making progress.

The match against Soderling was instructive. His shots lacked depth and menace, and were food and drink to his opponent, who had time to set up hisbig forehand and pin Nadal in the corners of the court.

The serve is a worry too — he is managing very few easy points there — and then there is the matter of his knees. Only Nadal knows how much the tendonitis that prevented him from defending his Wimbledon title is still bothering him.

So much of Nadal’s mystique was built around his physical attributes, his speed and his court coverage. Getting the ball past his racket looked a near impossibility at times as Nadal often seemed twice as big as he actually is.

Nadal’s defeat presents perfect opportunity for Federer

It wasn’t supposed to be a question of ‘if’ but rather how convincingly Rafael Nadal would clinch his record fifth successive French Open title.

But the baseline behemoth, for so long indestructible at Roland Garros, turned out to be mere flesh and blood, mere forehands and backhands as his unbeaten record at the capital of claycourt tennis came to an inglorious end.

The superman who had boasted a 31-0 record before Sunday did not lose his crown to his great rival Roger Federer in a final befitting the gravity of the defeat. Instead he slumped to an unassuming Swede: one he had beaten 6-1 6-0 the last time they had met on clay, in Rome four weeks ago.

Before this week Robin Soderling had never advanced beyond the third round of a grand slam tournament but on centre stage in Paris he proved his nerve was not to be questioned.

The 6-2 6-7 6-4 7-6 upset not only sent shockwaves through the sporting world but if Roger Federer needed any luck to complete his collection of grand slam trophies, it was handed to him the moment Soderling ended Nadal’s four-year Paris reign.

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