Watch: Roger Federer dismantles Rafael Nadal's serve at the 2017 Indian Wells Masters

20-time Major winner Roger Federer has been on the sidelines ever since last year's Wimbledon Championships, where he lost in the quarterfinals to Hubert Hurkacz. While he's tentatively slated to return to tour sometime around the grass season, the Swiss maestro's fans have been feeling desolate in his absence and have had to resort to his old highlight reels to comfort themselves.

Earlier on Sunday, an RF fan page on Twitter titled "Allez Roger" served up some rich content on their handle, taking the tennis universe back to the Indian Wells Masters five years ago. The Swiss maestro was enjoying a career renaissance back then, having made a comeback from his first knee surgery to beat Rafael Nadal in the championship match of the Australian Open against all odds.

Coincidentally, he was drawn to face the Spaniard yet again in the round-of-16 stage of the Indian Wells Masters two months later. While Federer needed five sets to beat his Spanish rival in their previous encounter, he cut him no slack during their match in the Californian desert.

In the video, Nadal can be seen serving at 6-2, 3-1 down. The Spaniard fired down a good serve at the Swiss maestro's body, but the latter was able to block it back deep into Nadal's forehand corner.

Nadal replied with a short forehand as he didn't have much time for his shot. His shot, however, was instantly killed off by Federer, who took the ball incredibly early on the rise on his backhand side to punt a down-the-line winner. The Spaniard subsequently managed to hold his serve in that game somehow, but found himself in trouble again while serving to stay in the match at 5-3 down.

After winning the first point of the game, Nadal dropped the next three points as Federer arrived at match point in just over an hour of play. The Spaniard fired a serve down the T with utmost precision, but Federer was able to anticipate correctly and swat back for a backhand winner to register a 6-2, 6-3 win over his rival.

Nadal was left shocked by the backhand return and couldn't help but smile at the Swiss maestro's unrelenting aggressive intent as the two embraced at the net. Federer, on his part, went on to win the title in the Californian desert, before following it up with another gutsy run in Miami the following week where he beat Nadal again in the final.

Roger Federer's 2022 return date will become clear in the upcoming months

Federer has been out of action since his Wimbledon campaign last year, undergoing rehabilitation for his knee injury. The Swiss maestro went under the knife for a third time in 2021, in a bid to improve his right knee condition. Thus, it is safe to assume that he intends to make a return to competitive tennis at some point in the future.

The 20-time Major winner has since made sporadic public appearances during his downtime from tennis. He did, however, reveal in a recent interview that his rehab is currently going well. He also suggested that he and his team will know for certain by April when he can finally return to action.