The King of Clay vs the Champion of Grass

It's that time of the year again!

All eyes in the Tennis world are towards Melbourne as first of the four grand slams, the Australian Open, is going to begin soon.

Fans haven't yet got over last year's stunning finale where Federer defeated Nadal in an epic five-setter.

This year's Australian Open, however, has so far been dominated by injury doubts and player withdrawals. Big names like Andy Murray, Serena Williams, Victoria Azarenka won't be participating in Melbourne owing to their health concerns.

Withdrawals of contenders could pave the way for Roger Federer to win his second straight major in Melbourne. He also got a kind early draw being handed the bottom quarter. Rafael Nadal was not so lucky as he might have to face No. 16 seed John Isner in the fourth round.

Speaking of these two phenomenal players, we all know that Roger Federer is the champion of grass court while Rafael Nadal is the undisputed king of clay.

Interestingly, Nadal remained unbeaten on clay for an unbelievable 72 matches while Federer hasn't lost a single match in the last 48 encounters on his favourite grass court.

Well, how about we keep a match between these two allowing Roger to play on grass court & Rafael on clay?

Then, we could close the never-ending Federer vs Nadal debate once and for all, couldn't we?

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Gearing up for the battle!

The Battle of the Surfaces- Rafael Nadal v Roger Federer

Well, believe it or not, this "clay-grass thriller" has happened on a unique court made just for this match with clay court on one side & grass on the other.

It cost $1.63 million & took 19 days to prepare this court.

Place: Rafael's home island, Palma De Mallorca.

Date: 2 May, 2007

World #1 standing against World #2.

One, who hadn't lost a single match on the grass for five years, the other one who was undefeated on the clay since the last three years.

Both competed against each other for the 11th time with the Spaniard having won seven of those ten meetings against the Swiss.

Who do you think was going to win the match?

Let the Battle begin!

The Battle of the Surfaces- Rafael Nadal v Roger Federer

The match started with Federer on his preferred grass court & Nadal on his favoured clay court.

As the match went on, the 1st set saw a no. of unforced errors from Federer's side. Maybe, it was the mixed courts which he was struggling to adapt to. Anyhow, he lost his way to hand Nadal a 3-1 lead, who made sure to take full advantage of it & went on to win the set 7-5.

One point should be noted here that the player on clay court had a clear advantage over the grass court one as the high bounce of the ball was giving them more time to gauge & play their shot accordingly.

As thrilling as it could get

The Battle of the Surfaces- Rafael Nadal v Roger Federer

The Swiss player, however, upped the tempo in the second set by breaking Nadal's serve. He found the required rhythm from both sides of the court. He took more baseline rallies & produced some beautiful backhand shots. He was at the top of his game the whole set & held on to win the second set by 6-4 to level the match.

Fun Fact: In the game, players are allowed a 90-second rest between the end changes called Changeover. For this special match, they were extended to 2 full minutes so each player has enough time to change his shoes for each surface.

& The Winner is...

The Battle of the Surfaces- Rafael Nadal v Roger Federer

As the third set started, Federer was looking to be heading for a victory. The audience could see the dangerous serves he was producing and at one point, he was leading 4-2.

But Rafa came storming back on his favoured surface, caught up with the world #1 & levelled the set at 5-5.

A great forehand gave Nadal the first match point, but a double fault in next point made the score 6-6.

Again a great service earned Nadal a match point, but in next point, Federer hit a splendid shot which again levelled the score 7-7.

But in the end, it was tenacious Spaniard who fought back hard, eventually winning the third set by 7-6(12-10).

In the end, Nadal had won 7-5, 4-6, 7-6.

Praise is all we have!

The Battle of the Surfaces- Rafael Nadal v Roger Federer

Some fans might say, it was Nadal's home ground. So, that might have helped boost his morale or gave him some kind of upper hand in the game.

Well, we are not going to start the never-ending debate of Nadal vs Federer, who is the G.O.A.T(Greatest Of All Time), because, for us, both are the best of the best. These two phenomenal players have put on such a show, gave us so much joy over the years that no other pair has ever produced or will ever produce in the history of tennis.

Talking about results, do we even care who won the match? We just consider ourselves fortunate enough to have witnessed such a once-in-a-lifetime event!!