The 2008 men's tennis season was full of highlights, but the biggest ones were provided by Rafael Nadal, who halted Roger Federer's five-year reign at Wimbledon and supplanted the mighty Swiss atop the rankings, a perch Federer owned for a record 4 1/2 years without interruption.
Nadal was easily the ATP player of the year, posting a brilliant 82-11 record and piling up a tour-best eight titles. Three of his championships came at three of the sexiest events, as the lefty captured his first-ever Wimbledon title by stunning Federer, secured a fourth straight French Open crown by besting Federer in the final for a third straight year, and also won Olympic gold at the Summer Games in Beijing. He became the first-ever male to win those three events in the same year, and did it on three different surfaces.
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