Rafael Nadal is ranked 1st in the world in the singles rankings, but can he win the Australian Open this year?

Rafael Nadal, known as ‘Rafa’, is close behind the heels of Rod Laver. If Rafa wins the Australian Open of 2011, he will have won four consecutive grand slams, and will be the first player after Laver to do so. He will also be the youngest player ever to have achieved it. But can he do it?

The only thing that is certain is that Rafa will have to fight hard to keep his number one title. He will have to triumph over some of the world’s top players to get there including Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray.

The first game is against Marcos Daniel, who currently ranks 93rd. Although Daniel is not a bad player, he’s just nowhere near close to Rafa, and this one is an easy one to forecast. There is just no competition between these two.

If Rafa goes on to play against Daniel Gimeno-Traver, ranked at 60 eh shouldn’t have much trouble here at all. Rafa and Gimeno-Traver have never played one another before, but since Gimeno-Traver turned professional in 2004, he’s not done so great.
 
Against fellow Spaniard Feliciano Lopez, it is likely that the match would be very hot indeed. Even so, it’s unlikely that Rafa would lose against Lopex in a major tournament such as the Australian Open, even though Lopez triumphed over Rafa in the warm-up tournament last year.

Croatian Marin Cilic, ranked 15th, is likely to be another of Rafa’s opponents and this may be a tough match for Rafa. On a good day, Cilic is a truly amazing player but the trouble is that he isn’t consistent enough to win. Same goes for Nalbandian currently 27th, who is a good player but not consistent which makes him a weaker player.

Rafa would again have a very tough match against Brit Andy Murray, who ranks 5th at present. But even though Murray is an extremely talented player, he did lose to Rafa at Wimbledon last year so perhaps he’s just not as good as Nadal.

If Rafa makes it through to the finals, which is quite likely, his most likely opponent is Roger Federer who currently holds 2nd place in the rankings. This will be a true fight of a match, but with Federer’s occasional weak backhand Nadal might just get his victory. But it won’t be easy.
 
Earlier in January, Rafa started the New Year with a win against Roger Federer in the final of the Exhibition Tournament in Abu Dhabi, sp perhaps the odds are in Rafa’s favour for now. All in all, it seems that Rafael Nadal might just win the 2011 Australian Open as he has a record to be proud of, and since his knee injury in 2009 he has gone from strength to strength.

It would seem that Nadal may have a more difficult path to victory than his rival Federer, but Nadal has shown his commitment and determination and he definitely has what it takes to get to the top.