The great rivalry: Federer vs Nadal

It has been a long time that we have no chance to see them playing together. Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal faced together many times but since 2007 Federer can not beat Rafa in the Grand Slams. It is a huge statistics. Today i was not expecting Roger Federer to beat Rafa Nadal but it would be real test to see Federer’s performance.

Nadal is the best player in the ATP now. He has a vast repertoire of shots, he has a great court craft, he is so quick, he can do any shot in any angle. Nadal serving balls to Federer’s backhand. He keeps sending high balls with top spin to his backhand side. Federer is making mistakes when the rallies goes long and mostly make mistakes in his backhand side. When he can take the ball to his forehand side, he should not make any unforced error because Rafa Nadal is waiting there to grab the game. That is how usually Federer- Nadal matches goes.

Today Federer started good with his service game and came to the net few times but like Andy Murray, Nadal is a superb player that he could get points from him. So he gave up coming to the net that often and he stayed at the back of the baseline. When he did that, it became easy for Rafa to dominate the game like old days. He kept him at the baseline, send the high top spin shots to his backhand all the time, had a good serve and with like this he took the first two sets: 7-6, 6-3.

In the third set, i expected from Federer to play more aggresively - as he lost 2 sets already- and apperance seemed that Rafa would win it. I wanted him to come to net more often that he did in the first 2 sets. Federer has to try to something different to beat him or to break his balance during the game. Luckily he started to come to net a bit more. Roger Federer made 45 unforced errors during the match. Rafael Nadal could break his opponent’s service very easily. He dominated the game and did not let him do his shots. I can say that in this match RF made so many unforced errors. His backhands are not that good but he also missed forehands and volleys that he usually did not. As a result of these Rafa Nadal took 3 straight sets and won the match: 7-6, 6-3, 6-3.

Neverthless i am happy to see that Roger Federer is moving better in court, he made very good shots during the game and i believe that with time he will be better. And for Rafa Nadal: I am not exaggerating that if i can say that he is a treasure for a tennis world. He is a great great player, i love him.

Rafa Nadal will play Stan Wawrinka on Sunday. I think that he will beat Stan very easily although I want to watch a 5 sets match and be hopeful about Stan’s performance.

 *Photos taken from Australian Open facebook page.