Federer and Nadal to rivalry enters one year hiatus at Madrid
Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal may share the greatest rivalry in tennis today, but with the Madrid Masters 1000 underway it’s also a rivalry which has now waited almost a full 12 months for its latest instalment.
When the two played in the final in Madrid last year, Nadal was ranked as the world’s best player and there was growing doubt that Federer could wrest the No. 1 ranking back from the Spaniard, whose most recent victory over the Swiss sealed his maiden Australian Open title at the start of 2009 and reduced the then 13-time Grand Slam champion to tears.
It was a victory that followed the Spaniard’s five-set triumph over Federer in the 2008 Wimbledon final, which followed yet another Nadal win over Federer in the Roland Garros final.
Indeed, Nadal stepped onto the clay court for the final at the Magic Box Tennis complex in 2009 having won the previous five meetings between the pair, and a 13-6 winning record across their careers. Surely, we could chalk this one up as another victory for the left-hander with the world’s best dirt-court game?
Wrong. This was to be the match where Federer reversed the downward slide against Nadal, and indeed turned around a career that many speculated was on the wane.
A four-hour semi-final epic against Novak Djokovic hadn’t helped Nadal’s chances in the match, nor had a punishing clay-court schedule that saw the King of Clay win titles in Monte Carlo, Barcelona and Rome in the preceding weeks.
A fresher Federer had been building his clay-court season at the Monte Carlo Masters (round of 16) and the Rome Masters (semi-finals) and his 6-4, 6-4 victory over Nadal in the Madrid final was to be the turning point of his season.
His second Madrid title secured, Federer went on to claim his first French Open crown and a record 15th Grand Slam title at Wimbledon while his great rival was sidelined with recurring knee tendonitis.
A 16th major has since followed for Federer, at this year’s Australian Open, while for the first time since winning Roland Garros in 2005, Nadal is not a reigning Grand Slam champion.
Remarkably, throughout Federer’s record breaking run he’s not looked across the net and seen his great rival on the opposite side of the court as a combination of injuries and form have kept the pair at a distance over the past year.
The withdrawal of current world No. 2 Djokovic from Madrid due to illness in 2010 means that world No. 1 Federer and third ranked Nadal are the top two seeds at the tournament again this year.
The stage is set at the Magic Box Tennis venue for the reigniting of a rivalry on the same stage we last saw it a year ago.
It’s now up to Federer and Nadal to deliver on their side of the bargain.
Tags: