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| February 25, 2007 | Sunday | Safar 7, 1428 |
Federer on record roll as Nadal gets dire draw
DUBAI, Feb 24: Roger Federer will overtake Jimmy Connors' record of 160 consecutive weeks as world number one on Monday irrespective of what he does while trying to win back the Dubai Open title next week.
Federer has several reasons for wanting to regain it, and not merely that of revenge on Rafael Nadal, who last year surprisingly ended his three-title sequence at one of the world number one's favourite venues.
More significantly, Federer may never have a better chance of winning the French Open than in 2007, and of becoming the first player in 38 years to hold all four Grand Slam titles. So getting the better of Nadal, even on hard courts, could be a valuable psychological boost before the clay court Grand Slam.
Saturday's draw gave Federer a start against Kristian Pless, the world number 86 from Denmark, who will have made a tiring journey from the US only a few days before. He should go on to a quarter-final with Novak Djokovic, the teenaged world number 14 from Serbia, but there are real doubts about Federer getting a repeat final against Nadal.
That is because the French Open champion from Spain has landed a doubly unlucky draw - first an opening encounter with Marcos Baghdatis, the former Australian Open finalist who is the most dangerous floater in the draw, and then a likely quarter-final with Tomas Berdych.
The sixth-seeded Czech has beaten Nadal in three of their last four meetings, including the last three occasions, and every time they have played on hard courts, such as the surface in Dubai.
Berdych also notably beat Federer in the Athens Olympics three years ago, and says: “If I had to choose between them I would rather play Rafa because I have been able to beat him three times. Better to play him than Roger who has beaten me four times.”
Whatever happens, Federer will still be competing within the ambience of his incredible record-breaking sequence as number one, which is already certain to go on for many more weeks.
That is because Federer recently set a new record for the most ranking points held at any time by a player - 8,370 and it still stands over the 8,000 mark, giving him a massive lead over all his nearest rivals.
This has built up during 2006 while Federer became the first player in more than 20 years to win 90 matches in a season. In the process he won a record 8,343,885 dollars in prize money in one year. —AFP
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