Will tendinitis end Nadal's reign as #1?

Although I try not to interject favoritism into my blog I will admit that Rafael Nadal, is my favorite tennis player, with Roger Federer, Gilles Monfils, and Gilles Simon following closely behind. Nadal, has been my favorite player for the past two years, I've always been impressed with the way that he fights to win every point and rarely looks beaten even if he's losing a match. In fact Nadal, is probably the mentally toughest player that I've ever seen. This year at the US Open Nadal, had to play two tough matches against Sam Querrey and Mardy Fish. In both matches he was in deep trouble and could have lost had it not been for his mental fortitude, to pull him through. Being mentally strong is a gift that some players just don't have, look at Marat Safin or Paul-Henri Mathieu, even Federer has been struggling mentally this year but Nadal is now facing an opponent that's much tougher than Murray, Djokovic or even Federer. Nadal, is in a battle to preserve his knees for as long as he can. The tendinitis that has been plaguing Nadal's knees seems to be getting worse. Rafa, mentioned on his blog that he's using his time off to rest his knees and will be having some tests done in Barcelona, soon. Hopefully the tests will go well but until he's given a green light to resume his practice schedule, Nadal will be forced to remain physically inactive and this could have a serious affect on his game next year. Nadal, went to the finals in Chennai and made the semi-finals at the Australian Open as well as Indian Wells, so he will have some important points to defend at the start of next year. I don't know how Nadal's knees will hold up from this point forward but I'm guessing that being sidelined from tournaments is just the start of things to come.