It is the third Sunday of the French Open Championships this year, and all eyes are on the two men – a Spanish matador who struggled to be the top dog for much of the season despite his world ranking against a legend of the game, but forgotten recent appearances in big tournaments. On Sunday night, it is the marquee clash of the last decade, one more time, at yet another Grand Slam final.
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At the start of the tournament, both these men were overshadowed by a certain Serb who looked simply unstoppable. Federer admitted that the spotlight, for once, was not on him. The bookmakers did not have him down as even the finalist, let alone having odds on winning the trophy. The pressure was not on Fedex and he knew it. Nadal though had come into this tournament having lost two ATP clay court tournaments. But he also had won the Monte Carlo masters which meant that turning up on a big day was never going to be a problem. Further, his No.1 ranking had to be defended and everyone knew he would go all out in doing that.
There is similarity in the paths these men took to reach the finals. World No. 1 Rafael Nadal opened against the big serving John Isner and looked extremely scratchy. He went down two sets to one, before recovering to clinch the tie 6-4 in the final set. Next up was fellow countryman Pablo Andujar and another not so impressive performance ,however, resulted in straight sets victory. Two matches under his belt was enough and the Rafa express started chugging along. Andre Veic fell by the wayside, with Nadal dropping just four games. The Croat Ivan Ljubicic was no match as he became another straight sets victim. The next match was a potential banana skin, as the only man to have defeated him at Roland Garros and last year’s finalist Robin Soderling was at the other side of the net.Not too much trouble ,another familiar script, another straight sets win left him facing No.4 seed Andy Murray in the semis. The Brit was battling an ankle injury since the third round and although he had his moments was no match for the Spainard.
To the other half of the draw now and Feliciano Lopez was first up for the Swiss maestro. He took his time to hit the straps but wrapped up victory quickly. He then bulldozed Maxime Teixeira dropping just five games, eight games against Janko Tipsarevic,another straight sets hammering of countryman Stanislas Wawrinka and another one against a tired Gael Monfils left us with perhaps the most awaited clash of the tournament, against Novak Djokovic. The big ticket billing lived up to its expectation and a French Open classic went in the way of Roger Federer.
One step away then from glory . Who has the edge? Who will go into this game the more confident ? Will familiarity play a big role ? Look at the records of these two gladiators. One with the most number of Grand Slams in the Open era, another with five titles at this venue. Their head to head record suggests that Rafa has the edge. He leads 16-8 in all matches and 5-2 in all Grand Slam finals. Whats more, he has won every single one of the last five Grand Slam finals between them. But write Roger Federer at your own peril. He knows what it takes to win here, he has done that before. He stopped the run of a seemingly unstoppable Novak Djokovic, which will give him immense confidence. Federer will be looking to put more daylight between him and Nadal in the race for most number of Slams, while Nadal will be looking for his tenth. If you believe in numerology, then Federer will take the crown and 44 is a very significant number. Federer beat Novak, who had a run of 44 unbeaten games. The time for talking is over, all eyes on Court Phillipe Chartrier on Sunday as another chapter of this modern day rivalry will be written, who knows, maybe for one last time.
