Rafa vs the Maestro: An Overrated Rivalry?
If one were to ask a fan of the current tennis world what he or she believes the greatest rivalry in the history of the sport is, chances are that this fan will cite the Rafael Nadal vs Roger Federer dispute, or the cleverly named “Fedal” Rivalry, without
hesitation. Not only is it considered the most thrilling rivalry on the court’s history, it is also the most well-publicized. The competition between the two players began in 2004, at the Miami Masters where an 18 year old Rafa became one of the six men to
defeat Swiss phenomenon Roger Federer that year. Ironically enough, or perhaps coincidentally, these players are two of the few players who are guilty of flinging a racquet to bounce it over the net.
However, this is no doubt the greatest rivalry of the decade, but is it actually the greatest of all time? Does it have even half the potential to match up to legendary face-offs such as those of Bjorn Borg and John McEnroe, or Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi.
There are several reasons why Rafa and Fed may never be able to stand at the pinnacle of competition, as the two other sets of opponents have. For one, there is a noticeable lack of close matches in this rivalry. The two players have competed against each
other 21 times. Out of this number, only 6 matches were the kind to keep fans on the edge of their seats. Even though there have been some three to five set matches between the Spaniard and the Swiss, most of them cannot be called close matches by any stretch
of the imagination. For example, the 2007 Hamburg Masters final, where Federer took Nadal down 2-6, 6-2, 6-0 – incidentally the same score-line as the fourth round French Open match between Dementieva and Petrova this year (a match which no one remembers).
Although their 2008 Wimbledon final match may be the match of all-time, the other rivalries had epic challenges as a matter of routine when they met in a tournament.
In addition to this, Federer and Nadal both suffer from stretches of extremely poor gameplay. Many a time, both players will go through streaks of dominance during a match, before falling miserably to long patches of unforced errors. The quality of play
is variable with almost every match.
Finally, one last reason to doubt the Fedal rivalry’s position as the greatest opposition of all time is the lack of competition. In the other two rivalries, there was fight, fire and the desire to annihilate the other player. When McEnroe and Borg played,
McEnroe would set out with the intention to slay Borg. Agassi would start a match wanting to kill Sampras and his game. This is what Federer and Nadal lack: the desire to upstage the other player. Both stars have too much respect for each other.
With the above factors kept in mind, it seems reasonable to point towards Bjorn Borg vs John McEnroe, or Andre Agassi vs Pete Sampras as champions of the rival ground. However, analysts and critics still seem to pick Fedal over every other opposition in
the game; maybe, once one of the two players retires, Borg-McEnroe and Agassi-Sampras will get the recognition they deserve.
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