If Nadal wins the French Open, the obvious question arises: will he ever give the top-ranking back?  Obviously he will not be #1 forever, but it’s important to note that the only reason Federer was able to regain the #1 slot is because Nadal struggled with injuries during last year’s clay court season, which ultimately kept him from later defending his title at Wimbledon (where he beat Federer in 2008).  I have previously written about how Nadal is better than Federer now and Nadal’s hot streak going into the grass and hard court seasons could separate the two titans even more.

Nadal has won three straight tournaments and a victory at Roland Garros will make it four in a row and three more than Federer this year (Federer’s lone win was the first grand slam of the year, the Australian Open).  Given his success, and Federer’s “struggles,” I would be surprised if Nadal ever gave up the top ranking to Federer again.

Federer is considered by many as the greatest tennis player in history.  He has more grand slam titles than any other player, has made more grand slam final appearances than anyone else, he’s made over $55 million in tournament winnings and is just short of 700 career wins.  He is currently the #1 ranked player in the world by a large margin and has the record of four consecutive years of being ranked at the top.

However, he just can’t seem to beat Nadal.

After his win in Madrid, Nadal is now 14-7 in his career against Federer, arguably the best player in the world.  Since the beginning of the 2008 season, Nadal has won six of their last seven match ups, including the the French Open and Wimbledon in 2008 and the Australian Open in 2009 (amazingly, the two men have met in the finals in 17 of their 21 matches).

Unfortunately for Nadal, a knee injury forced him to miss a lot of 2009 after the Australian Open, forcing him to his first loss ever at the French Open and having to skip Wimbledon as the defending champion.  While he was gone, Federer won both titles, along with the U.S. Open, giving him the necessary grand slam titles to pass former record holder Pete Sampras.

But watch out…Nadal is back.  Playing on his favorite surface, Nadal has won back-to-back-to-back tournaments in Monte Carlo, Rome and Madrid, defeating Fernando Verdasco, David Ferrer and Roger Federer, respectively.  He has risen in the world rankings to #2 and is the heavy favorite going into the French Open.

It became clear over the past three years that Federer was the best player in the world, except for a healthy Nadal.  2009 was Federer’s year because Nadal was fighting knee problems that kept him from participating in many tournaments after the Australian Open.  Now that he’s won three straight tournaments, is it time to give Nadal the “best in the world” moniker again?

One last note: Nadal will turn 24 in June; Federer will turn 29 in August.

Top ranked* Roger Federer is still a maybe for the Rogers Cup, after his wife gave birth to twin girls last month.

If I were a betting man, Federer will not participate in Montreal, as it might set him up to play Nadal, the only player on the Tour who seems to have his number.  While Federer recently defeated Nadal on clay, it’s clear that Nadal was far from healthy and still may not be due to knee tendinitis in both legs.

Federer has taken advantage of Nadal’s injury, winning the French Open and Wimbledon to move past Pete Sampras with 15 career Grand Slam titles.  Many tennis fans know that he most likely would not have achieved that mark if Nadal were healthy for both events.

By winning the last two Grand Slams, Federer reclaimed the #1* ranking from Nadal, who took over the spot after being stuck at #2 for longer than any other player in history.

While Federer may not want to see Nadal back on the court, tennis fans are hungry for the resumption of this classic rivalry.

Serena Williams’ tshirt is at least funny.

The 23-year old Frenchman, currently ranked #32 in the world, apparently ingested no more than “a grain of salt” of the drug and yet still tested positive and was immediately suspended for two years.  While he will be banned for life if he tests positive for an illegal substance again, Gasquet certainly is a trail blazer when it comes to denying use of drugs.

While many athletes simply say they never took steroids (Rafael Palmeiro initially, David Ortiz up until today) or took “something” but didn’t know they were steroids (Gary Sheffield, Barry Bonds), Gasquet opens up an opportunity for countless atheletes to simply blame loose women in Miami clubs on positive drug tests.  While he may not recognize his importance in this matter today, this will not be the last time we hear from Richard Gasquet.

The world’s top-ranked player cruised after losing the first set to the 20-year old Querrey, taking the match 6-7 (5), 6-4, 6-3, 6-4 to open the Davis Cup semifinal match up between Spain and the United States.

Andy Roddick will face off against David Ferrer in the second match today.

Though Querrey was handled pretty well in the final three sets, he stayed in the match with Nadal, which will hopefully get him prepared for his second match, whose importance completely depends on Roddick and doubles-team Mike Bryan and Mardy Fish.  If the Americans lose the next two matches, Querrey’s second attempt at Davis Cup success will be for naught.

Instead, Andy Roddick will begin against Ferrer, while Mike Bryan and Mardy Fish play their doubles match against Fernando Verdasco and Feliciano Lopez, ranked #15 and #37, respectively.

As the semifinal is being held in Spain, the matches will be played on clay courts, which the American players have very little experience with.  Roddick leads the team in singles victories on clay with 67, while the other players have combined for 19.  To contrast, Ferrer has won 130 total matches on the red surface and Nadal has won 155, including 121 of his past 124.

Querrey was eliminated from this year’s US Open by Nadal in four sets, a nice finish for the young American.  Hopefully with a good showing at this semifinal match up, Querrey will begin a solid foundation representing his country in Davis Cup matches.

Bob Bryan, who usually plays doubles with his twin brother Mike, took a cortisone shot for his inflamed left shoulder that will keep him off the tennis court for some time.  The Bryan brothers are 14-2 in David Cup doubles play.

Andy Roddick and 20-year old Sam Querrey round out the team of four that will take on Spain’s foursome of ranked players, including world #1 Rafael Nadal.

Querrey will be joining top-ranked American Andy Roddick, who got smoked by Novak Djokovic in the quarterfinals of the Open, along with Bob and Mike Bryan, the world’s top doubles players.

The Americans will have a very diffcult time against the Spanish team, which is headlined by world #1 Rafael Nadal, along with #5 ranked David Ferrer, #15 Fernando Verdasco and #38 Feliciano Lopez.

But back to Querrey.  Thanks to his improbable run during the US Open, his ranking jumped 15 spots from #55 in the world to #40.  Other Americans who saw a signficant jump included Robert Kendrick, jumping 13 spots to #100, Sam Warburg moving up 14 spots to #155 and Ryler DeHeart, who improved his ranking by 53 spots to #208 in the world.

Serving at 5-4 in the fourth set and up 30-15, Roddick proceeeded to double fault twice in a row and then watched Djokovic throw a lob over his head to break serve, eventually leading to the tiebreaker.

However, the story of the night was Djokovic’s post-match interview on the court with USA Network’s Michael Barkann, which is also played over the PA system at Arthur Ashe Stadium.  Commenting on Roddick’s joke that he had the bird flu, SARS or other various injuries, Djokovic said “you know, Andy was saying I have 16 injuries in the last match.  Obviously, I don’t — right?”  The clearly pro-Roddick crowd began to boo the Serb, who is currently ranked #3 in the world, which only led him further in his comments.

“They’re already against me because they think I’m faking everything, so it’s all right,” Djokovic said, to even higher boos.  “That’s not nice, anyhow, to say in front of the crowd that I have 16 injuries and that I’m faking it.”

He did later apologize saying “unfortunately, Andy made a statement.  I don’t think it was intentional. I don’t blame it on him. I did react on the court. Maybe I reacted bad in that moment. I apologize. It was impulsive.  I made maybe a mistake by saying that in front of 20,000 people in his city and his favorite tournament.”

Djokovic, who won the Australian Open in January, will play #2 ranked Roger Federer for a chance at the US Open Final.  If Djokovic were to win that match, as well as the final against either Rafael Nadal or Andy Murray, who play in the other semifinal match, he will move ahead of Federer in the rankings.