So the clay-court season is officially over for another year and we approach the hard-court season with Rafael Nadal at the top or the ATP race and looking unbeatable. Or is he?

I challenge you to say that Nadal hasn’t had a brilliant season to date - you can’t argue with his record. On clay he is still phenomenal. He won Roland Garros before rolling up to Queen’s the day after and winning the tournament a week after his humiliation of world No.1 Roger Federer. Then he defeats Federer in five thrilling sets at Wimbledon two weeks after that and declares grass to be his favourite surface. Add in a few title wins around the tour and he fully deserves his place at the top of the ATP race this year.

Nadal’s problem during the season is that he doesn’t win enough hard-court tournaments. In fact, you have to go back to March 2007 to find Nadal’s last win on a hard court, where he defeated Novak Djokovic in straight sets at Indian Wells. Nadal plays a lot of tournaments in the first half of the season up to the end of the clay court season with the French Open. His last post-French Open hard court win was back in October 2005 at the Madrid Masters, the same year he won at the Canada Masters and China Open.

Nadal isn’t as bad on hard courts as his tournament wins would suggest, having reached the semi-finals of the Tennis Masters Cup in 2006 and 2007, while he has also reached at least the quarter-final stage of many of the Masters events in the US and beyond in the last three seasons.

He does have the ability to win on hard courts. It’s going to be harder for him to win than on grass because of the way some of the courts play, but if he reduces some of the top spin off his forehand and plays an even more aggressive baseline game, he should be able to progress.

Nadal’s biggest disadvantage on the US Open Series is the use of DecoTurf at the US Open, which offers reduced friction on ball-surface contact. This in turn keeps the ball much lower than Nadal would like. His best outing at the US Open came in 2006 where, as the second seed, he lost in the quarter-finals to Mikhail Youzhny.

Biggest rival Federer excels on the surface, having won the US Open for the last four years. There are 1,000 points available for the winner of the US Open, with only 150 points for getting to the fourth round, which means Federer can still lose ground to Nadal, if Nadal at least reaches the fourth round and Federer fails to win.

Nadal doesn’t necessarily have to challenge Federer on court to have a successful hard-court season. As long as he ensures that he at least betters his performance last year, he’ll be gaining ranking points - and if he or somebody else beats Federer along the way then even better for his own chances of finishing the year at No.1. Federer has the most points to defend through to the end of the season and will need to win again at the US Open and Cincinnati Masters to keep Nadal behind him.

Regardless of past form on surfaces, the ranking is Nadal’s for the taking. He’s more than a match for Federer on any surface - with the exception so far of DecoTurf which is almost exclusive to the US Open - but, until this year, nobody was a match for Federer on grass. I fully expect Nadal to come out and show the world how much he has improved his hard-court game over the course of the season and challenge Federer.

Almost everyone in tennis said that Nadal would have to beat Federer at Wimbledon to prove he was a better all-rounder. I disagree because Federer can play well and win on all surfaces. Besides, I don't see why there is a need to agree one is better than the other - they're both phenomenal players on every surface.

On his best day on clay, Federer could beat Nadal at Roland Garros, likewise Nadal has proven he can win at Wimbledon, and he could win at Flushing Meadows later this year. Until Nadal breezes into the hard-court season and wins several Tennis tournaments consistently, I’ll still be sceptical as to whether he is a better all-rounder than Federer.