US Open Report: Day 15

Rafael Nadal wins the 2010 US Open title, his 9th major overall, becoming only the seventh man to win the Career Grand Slam. With his Olympic gold medal, he only becomes the third tennis player (man or woman) to win all four slams as well as the Olympic gold. Married couple Andre Agassi and Steffi Graff are the other two players to achieve this feat. Nadal also becomes the first player to win three straight Grand Slam tournaments since Rod Laver did it more than four decades ago.

Big props to his opponent, newly #2 player in the world Novak Djokovic who is the only player to win a set off Nadal this entire tournament. After winning the grueling four-hour epic match against Roger Federer on Saturday, many people didn't give the Serbian a chance. Fate stepped in on Sunday as rain postponed play enabling both Djokovic and Nadal to rest one extra day. Djokovic fought hard and pounded the ball as hard as he could to Nadal. It's a testament to his great fighting spirit that he saved a ton of break points against him. Winning that second set was also a great achievement especially right after a 2-hour rain delay postponed the match today. In the end, however, he was just beaten through and through by one of the greats of our time.

Speaking of "greats of all time" the inevitable debates and conversations about who is the GOAT will continue to rage on especially with this result. If Nadal can win 3-5 more Grand Slams, it's definitely worth talking about. For now though, I'm just going to leave it to other people to exhaust themselves silly arguing for one or another (or another). With Nadal winning his third major title of the year, he more or less locks up the #1 ranking for the year.

And before another Grand Slam season to a close, a hearty congratulations should also go out to Women's Doubles title champions 6th seed Vania King-Yaroslava Shvedova who won against 2nd seed Liezel Huber-Nadia Petrova. Until next year, New York!