Rafael Nadal

Spaniard Rafael Nadal is now the number one ranked player in the world, after finally removing Roger Federer from the top spot. He has won the French Open on the last four occasions and this year he added the Wimbledon title after an epic with match with Roger Federer in the final. He has yet to taste defeat at the Roland Gaross. In each of the last three finals, he has beaten, World Number 2, Federer, and possibly to most people’s surprise, a player who he has defeated in 12 of their 18 encounters. Admittedly ten of those victories came on clay, and now after Wimbledon he has one on grass too. Clay courts are a surface that Nadal is virtually unbeatable on. Federer has much the better record of the two on hard court and that’s why he may well start favourite to win here. He is surely a golden US Open Free bet option. However, Nadal is improving and after winning the Toronto Masters on Hard Court last month he is obviously more in tune with the surface. He now has the Number One spot - he can go a long way in securing it by winning here at the US Open.

When winning his first French Open, Nadal defeated Federer in the Semi-final, thus preventing Federer from potentially achieving a career Grand Slam. He was also only the 7th player to win a Grand Slam at his first attempt and he was the 2nd player to do this at Roland Gaross. US Open Tips

Nadal is clearly a phenomenon, he is still only 22 years old. He is the only teenager, other than Boris Becker and Bjorn Borg, to have been ranked number two player in the world. He should be checked out in the US Open Odds.

On the downside and a reason why backers may not bet on him at the US Open is that his best performance to date was a quarter Final in 2006. This Tournament is the only one of the Grand Slams that he has not reached the semi-final.