Nadal Should Follow Federer Example To Match Swiss Ace's Record, Rosewall Says

Australian tennis legend Ken Rosewall has backed Rafael Nadal to catch long-time rival Roger Federer’s Grand Slam record but admits that the Spaniard will have to make a few changes in order to achieve that.

The Swiss ace currently holds the record with 20 men’s singles Grand Slam titles and Nadal is four behind with 16 major titles. The Spaniard can move one step closer if he wins the French Open which begins Sunday.

Federer won his 17^th Grand Slam title in 2012 and failed to win a single major title for four years. He missed the second-half of the 2016 campaign due to a knee injury, and it was unclear if he would ever return to his best, but he did and in some style. He won seven titles in 2017 and has continued his form into 2018 capturing two titles thus far.

Similarly, Nadal also went through a two-year Grand Slam drought in 2015 and 2016 before he returned from an injury-ravaged 2016 campaign, to win six titles in 2017, which included the French Open and the US Open. He ended last season as the world number one and after a brief spell at number two this year, he is back at the top of the rankings.

The Spaniard is favorite to win the French Open in 2018 and close the gap to Federer, but the Swiss ace decided to skip the entire clay court campaign and focus his attention on winning Wimbledon for a record ninth time in 2018.

The 36-year-old has chosen to play a limited schedule since his return from injury in 2017 and has focused on the grass and hard court events. And Rosewall feels Nadal should follow in his footsteps and limit his schedule by choosing to skip events that do not favor his game.

The 10-time French Open champions is five years Federer’s junior and is certain to play for a few more years than the Swiss tennis legend, and by playing a limited schedule, Rosewall is of the opinion that he can match the current Grand Slam record.

"There's a good chance he will (catch Federer)... I think Rafa's going to have to decide that he won't play quite so much," Rosewall said about Nadal’s chances, as quoted by the Express. “He's probably got to realise that he's got to save himself at some other time on some other surface, so he may not play on hard court tournaments so much."

"That aside, there's no reason why he can't win a number more big tournaments,” the Australian tennis great added.

Nadal will begin his French Open campaign against Alexandr Dolgopolov on Sunday and there is a possibility that the Spaniard could meet Novak Djokovic in the final with the Serbian drawn in the bottom half of the draw.