In total awe, tennis legend Roy Emerson is tipping Rafael Nadal to win a second Australian Open crown to join the sport's most exclusive club and step up his pursuit of Roger Federer's record 20 grand slam singles crowns.
Emerson can't see anyone stopping Nadal following his relentless march to the final without dropping a set and predicts the Majorcan marvel will complete a 2017 Federer-like fairytale comeback after four months between tour events.
If he does, Nadal will join Emerson and Rod Laver as the only men to have won all four grand slam events at least twice each.
"He deserves to be there, oh yeah," Emerson told AAP on Friday.
A second triumph in Melbourne, to go with his mind-boggling 11 in Paris, two at Wimbledon and three in New York would give Nadal 18 majors in all, just two shy of Federer.
No wonder why Emerson, who held the men's record of 12 grand slam singles titles for 33 years until Pete Sampras eclipsed the Queenslander in 2001, believes it's game back on between Nadal and Federer.
"Winning the French 11 times, it is ridiculous," Emerson said.
"No one's going to beat him at the French again, or Monte Carlo. He owns those (clay court) tournaments so he's going to win the French again."
If Emerson's correct, that would leave Nadal heading to Wimbledon with the chance to catch Federer two months after turning 33.
"He's going to be around for a while and he's going to lay off the hard courts quite a bit," Emerson said.
"Roger's best chance (of staying ahead) is Wimbledon and the other two are on hard courts, so they've got great chances there also.
"But at their age it's a bit more difficult on the harder surfaces."
