Sports: #1 Ranked and a Huge Underdog

If it was any other player, any one of the other 6 billion human beings in the world, the #1 ranked Roger Federer would be favored to win the French Open tomorrow. But instead, he's playing Rafael Nadal, who is one of the all-time best clay court tennis players ever. The two met in the French Open last year, and the year before that, and the year before that...each time, Federer lost.

But it's not some kind of mental stumbling block. Nadal doesn't dominate only the World No. 1 on clay, he dominates everyone else, too. He's literally never lost a best-of-5 match on clay, and his overall clay record is incredible - he's only lost twice on clay since 2005, making for an unbelievable 113-2 record.

Why the disparity? Nadal's game, consisting of excellent court movement, ferocious counterpunching, and efficient, error-free groundstrokes works particularly well on clay (and it works fine elsewhere, too, of course). Even at the tender age of 22, he's mentally seasoned, and by the end of his career he'll almost certainly have dethroned Björn Borg for all-time French Open titles won.

Can Fed win? The odds are heavily stacked against him for once in his life - most people think he'll be lucky to take a set, let alone win three against the King of Clay. It should be fun to watch, anyway...