Feet Made of Clay

Winning Stuttgart gave Rafael Nadal his 34th consecutive win on a clay court. Now he only needs to win six more matches on clay to equal Thomas Muster's record of 40 match wins. It's still a distant 19 wins from Guillermo Vilas's record of 53 (info thanks to Peter Bodo's Tennis World), but he seems to have been crowned this year's King of Clay.

The seemingly invincible King of Clay is still human, however. Nadal pulled out of the Croatia Open in Umag, Croatia citing tendinitis in his right knee.

It's not like he needs to play any more optional tournaments: Nadal has already clinched his spot at the 2005 Masters Cup to be held in Shanghai, China. He's also now #2 in the ATP Entry Rankings, bumping Lleyton Hewitt down a spot. And since he's not going to be defending many points from the hardcourt season, if he does well at the US Open and the preceding Masters Series tournaments he might just hang on to that #2 spot until the year's end.

posted by Noelle De Guzman @ 8:52 AM