home field advantage

So I just read a book that stated there's no such thing as home field advantage.  By that, I mean that if one team were playing another team with identical players, that each team would be expected to win about half the time.  We all know though that home teams win much more at home than on the road.

However, it wouldn't be tough to say that in an individual sport, that tennis player Rafael Nadal has a home field advantage on the French Open's clay courts.  Nadal defeated the history's greatest men's tennis player, Roger Federer, to win the French Open on Sunday.  Nadal has only lost a match in the French Open once, making his career record there 45-1.  He has 6 French Open titles.  The courts there are clay, a surface that Nadal has excelled at.

Rafael Nadal celebrates his 6th French Open title
Alex Livesey/Getty Image

The next major tennis tournament is Wimbledon in London, which is played on grass. Nadal has won there 2 times, while Federer can claim his own home court advantage, as he has won Wimbledon 6 times.