Wimbledon 2017: Rafael Nadal Guns for No. 1, Championships Win After French Open Conquest

Rafael Nadal
Rafael Nadal celebrates after winning the French Open for the Ninth time.  AP

Rafael Nadal wining his 10th French Open will not stop him from chasing history. The next stop is All England Club where the world No. 2 hopes to get his third Grand Slam title on grass court. Then by the end of the year, the Spaniard can very well aim for No. 1 but he needs to get past Andy Murray, Novak Djokovic and his chief nemesis - Roger Federer.

Certainly exploding with confidence coming off his well-deserved victory at Roland Garros, Nadal is the man of the hour heading to Wimbledon. "Winning again in Paris means Nadal has to be a favorite for Wimbledon, even though his grass-court game has never been as impressive as his performances on clay," Bleacher Report said.

Indeed, All England is not a favored surface for Nadal as he only appeared in three Wimbledon finals and managed to win two. And the farthest that Nadal advanced on the tourney was round four in 2011 and since then it was a struggle. It's hard to imagine that with Murray, Djokovic and Federer around and surely planning to win Nadal will taste victory with ease.

However, Bleacher Report said the Spanish ace has in fact a fighting chance if he would be going against Murray. Though the Brit is currently the world No. 1 his inconsistency is a suspect. Playing against a hungry Nadal, Murray could be easily overwhelmed and more so if the former is able to reconfigure his grass court tactics and perhaps a bit of help from a good weather.

Then there's Djokovic but the Serb coming from a humiliating quarterfinal dismissal at Roland Garros is a huge suspect. Plagued by coaching issues that only distract him even more, Djokovic appeared to have lost the heart to win lately and having Andre Agassi as tutor obviously did not help.

So the biggest worry for Nadal at Wimbledon is Roger Federer. The Swiss has been priming up for the grass and even skipped this year's edition of the French Open. It's quite apparent that Federer has the resolve to win and his recent solid form pointed to direction of wining another Wimbledon.

According to Euro Sport, Nadal is among the top contenders in Wimbledon but Federer has the better chance of winning the title simply because grass in not Nadal's court. On clay, it's nearly impossible to beat the Spaniard but good thing for Federer Wimbledon is not Roland Garros.

But if Wimbledon will not count as among the string of triumphs for Nadal this 2017, he can very well shoot for another star, and that of ending the year as world No. 1. Per Metro, the points separating Murray and Nadal wouldn't be too hard to surmount.

And as mentioned above, the world No. 1 is dealing with inconsistency, something that he might be unable to immediately resolve. Murray, in fact, seems ready to let go of the ATP top ranking, indicating clinging to the honor would be a struggle.

"It's most likely that I'll lose the No. 1 spot ... No one has kept it forever, it will inevitably happen at some stage," Murray said. And it can happen in the next few months, courtesy of clay wizard Rafael Nadal.

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