Tuesday, November 21, 2006
State of the rivalry: Federer vs Nadal!
Tennis is a great sport for so many reasons but most fans would agree on one major one. Rare are the sports where two opponents come up to a field for such an intense one on one battle. Once you arrive on that court, all those hours of training, those extra pounds you lifted, those extra shots you hit when you were beyond exhausted, all of that and more comes down to a battle between two players. It's a strategic battle of course, but probably more than anything else it's a battle of the wills as well as a mind war.
No doubt about it, it is difficult to wish for a better rivalry than the current one between Nadal and Federer. Sure a few years ago we had Pete Sampras vs Andre Agassi and by no means am I trying to compare the two. They are both unmatched in so many ways. But the Nadal-Federer one has been growing for years now and it's not hype or biult by the media, it truly is a great battle every time they play on the court.
How can Roger Federer, who many predict will be the best player in history when all is said and done have so many problems with the Spaniard? The usually unflappable Federer often looks lost in such matches. If this was an oral debate, you could imagine William Shakespeare looking for his words.. impossible? Try again. There's something about Nadal, about the way he plays this game, his never give up attitude. The fact that when looking at him, you will never tell if he's up or down match point, it's the same intensity every single time, every single match, every single point.
Roger knows his regular shots, his regular game is just not good enough against Nadal. No problem, he has a few extra gears he can go to. But then, there's also this other "aspect". Upon stepping on the court anywhere in the world, Roger has this "aura", this bubble around him, this idea that unless a miracle happens, Roger will come up on top. Everyone sees this bubble, the fans, the commentators and probably more than anyone else the players themselves. When Agassi says Roger is the best he's ever played, when Roddick dismisses the rivalry idea because he's not winning, etc. Everyone sees this huge bubble, everyone except Nadal. Rafa just steps on the court and does not seem to mind that it's Roger.... and to Roger, that's just not something he's used to and he's not getting any more used to it with time...
Some have said Rafael is now in Roger's head and it's getting harder and harder to argue that fact. When Roger says Rafael plays a "unidimensional game" (as he did last week in Shanghai), it is certainly no mistake. Roger has many qualities and the way he speaks so elequently certainly is one. He said that because he believed it. But then how could he really say Nadal has a one dimensional game? Sure Nadal basically just tries to get the ball back to Roger, but it works. Why would anyone in their right mind switch tactics when you are able to knock out the world #1 player by just hitting the ball back (granted, doing it better than anyone else)?
2007 will certainly be an increasingly interesting year for this rivalry is Rafael can continue to improve on other surfaces in order to reach those finals against Federer. We know Federer won't lose often to anyone else so the state of this rivalry is in the Spaniard's hands... Vamos Rafa..
# posted by Pierre : 6:51 PM
