Federer–Nadal rivalry
Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal are professional tennis players engaged in a storied rivalry that many consider to be among the greatest in tennis history.
They have held the top two rankings on the ATP Tour since July 2005 and are the only pair of men to have ever finished four consecutive calendar years at the top. Federer was ranked No. 1 for a record 237 consecutive weeks beginning in February 2004. Nadal, who is five years younger, ascended to No. 2 in July 2005 and held this spot for a record 160 consecutive weeks before surpassing Federer in August 2008. Thus, Nadal is currently ranked No. 1 and Federer No. 2.
Nadal leads their overall head-to-head series 13–6. Because tournament seedings are based on rankings, 15 of their matches have been in tournament finals, including an Open era record seven Grand Slam finals.For three consecutive years, 2006–2008, they played in the finals of both the French Open and Wimbledon. They also met in the 2009 Australian Open final. Nadal won five of the seven, losing only the first two Wimbledons. Three of these Grand Slam finals were epic five setters (2007 and 2008 Wimbledon, 2009 Australian), and the 2008 Wimbledon final has been lauded as the greatest match ever by many long-time tennis analysts.[1][6][7][8][9] They have also played in a record seven Masters Series finals, including their epic five setter at the 2006 Rome Masters.
There are many other significant qualities to their rivalry:
- They have combined to win Grand Slam titles in an unprecedented fashion, capturing 15 of the last 16 (9 for Federer, 6 for Nadal) from the 2005 French Open through the 2009 Australian Open. This includes an all-time record 11 consecutive titles from the 2005 French Open through the 2007 US Open. Furthermore, Federer won three titles in 2004, increasing the total to 18 of the last 21. They have also dominated elsewhere, such as combining for 19 of the 27 Masters Series titles (10 for Federer, 9 for Nadal) from 2005–2007.
- Federer had the most dominant four year run in tennis history from 2004–2007.[10] His overall match record was 315–24, but this included a mere 6–8 against Nadal, who was the only man to have a winning record against him.
- Nadal has repeatedly denied Federer a Career Grand Slam by defeating him at the French Open every year from 2005–2008.
- Not only do both men possess Open era records for consecutive wins on a single surface – Federer on both grass (65) and hard courts (56), Nadal on clay (81) – but all three streaks were ended by the other man.
History
2004-2005
They played their first match in March 2004 at the third round of the Miami Masters. During the previous 9 months Federer had won his first two Grand Slam titles and became World No. 1 in February at the age of 22. Nadal, only 17 years old and ranked No. 34,shocked the tennis world by beating Federer in straight sets.
Their second meeting was a year later, again in Miami, but this time in the best-of-five-set final. Coming into the match, Federer had been a dominant World No. 1 for over a year. Nadal, still an up-and-comer ranked No. 31, won the first two sets. However, Federer recovered to win the third set in a tiebreak then controlled the final two sets, extending his record win streak in tournament finals to 18. Despite the blown lead, this match was considered by some tennis analysts as a breakthrough performance for Nadal.
They played again two months later in the semifinals of the French Open. This was their first meeting on clay, and the stakes were very high. Federer needed the French title to achieve a Career Grand Slam, having already won the other three Slams. But Nadal was now ranked No. 5 due to his emergence as a dominant clay-court player, winning five tournaments and 17 consecutive matches leading up to the French. He continued his win streak by defeating Federer in four sets en route to his first Grand Slam singles title.
Though they did not play again in 2005, they formed an effective duopoly over the mens game by winning three of the four Grand Slams and all eight Masters Series they entered. They both won 11 titles, including a single-season record four Masters Series each. Federer won his third consecutive Wimbledon and second U.S. Open. During the second half of the year he won 35 consecutive matches and extended his record win streak in tournament finals to 24, but both streaks ended when he lost only his fourth match of the year in the Masters Cup final.Nadal became World No. 2 in July, won eight clay titles, and finished the year on a 36 match clay win streak.
2006
They played six times in 2006. Nadal won the first four, beginning with the Dubai final in February. This ended Federer's Open era record of 56 consecutive wins on hard courts.
Nadal then continued his domination on clay, defeating Federer in the finals of the Monte Carlo Masters, the Rome Masters, and the French Open. The Rome final was an epic five hour battle in which Federer led 4-1 in the fifth set but later failed to convert two match points, and Nadal eventually triumphed in a tiebreak.[17] Nadal then broke the Open era record for consecutive wins on clay with his first round victory in the French Open. In the finals, Federer quickly won the first set, but Nadal fought back and won his second French title in a fourth set tiebreak.
They faced off again a month later in the finals of Wimbledon, their first meeting on grass. Nadal's run to the final was somewhat surprising, as most tennis analysts considered him a clay-court specialist.[18][19] On the other hand, Federer had broken the Open era record for consecutive wins on grass with his first round victory. Federer then fulfilled expectations by capturing his fourth consecutive Wimbledon title in four sets, also ending his five-loss streak against Nadal.
Their last match of the year was a straight-sets victory for Federer in the semifinals of the Masters Cup, which he proceeded to win for the third time in four years. Nadal's career head-to-head advantage was now 6-3.
In 2006, they dominated the men's tour again, this time winning all four Grand Slams and holding the top two rankings for the entire season. Federer had his best year, setting the all-time record for most rankings points by capturing a career-high 12 titles, including three Grand Slams, the Masters Cup, and four Masters Series. He won 92 of his 97 matches and finished the year on a 29 match win streak spanning five titles. But four of his losses were to Nadal, who finished the season undefeated on clay.
An important footnote is that the ATP decided to end best-of-five-set matches in Masters Series finals after 2006. This was due, in part, to both Federer and Nadal withdrawing from the Hamburg Masters tournament because it began the day after their grueling five hour match in Rome. Thus, their ensuing best-of-five-set encounters all occurred in Grand Slams.
2007
They played five times in 2007, and Federer won three. This is the only season he won their head-to-head matchup, narrowing Nadal's career advantage to 8-6.
Federer began the year where he left off in 2006, extending his win streak to a career-best 41 matches. He dominated his opponents en route to his third Australian Open title, becoming the first man since Björn Borg in 1980 to win a Grand Slam without losing a set.He then won his career-high seventh consecutive tournament by capturing the Dubai title for the fourth time in five years.But his dominant streak ended in March with surprising losses to Guillermo Cañas in the early rounds of both Indian Wells and Miami. Nadal fared better at Indian Wells, winning the fifth hard court title of his career.
The spring clay-court season ensued, and for the second straight year Federer and Nadal played in three clay-court finals. Nadal won the first meeting in straight sets for his third consecutive Monte Carlo title. A few weeks later they met in the Hamburg Masters for the first time. Nadal entered with an 81-match clay win streak spanning over two years, but Federer defeated him for the first and only time on clay. He even bageled Nadal in the deciding third set. The next tournament was the French Open, and Nadal won their much-anticipated rematch in four sets, capturing his third consecutive French title. Federer squandered 16 of 17 break point opportunities, including 10 in the first set.
Their last two meetings in 2007 were also a repeat of 2006: the finals of Wimbledon and the semifinals of the Masters Cup. Once again Federer won both, though the Wimbledon final was much closer this time. After Federer won the first and third sets in tiebreaks, Nadal dominated the fourth set, resulting in Federer uncharacteristically losing his cool and complaining to the umpire about the Hawk-Eye line calling system. Nadal continued to apply pressure in the fifth set and earned two break point chances at 15-40 in both the third and fifth games. But Federer served well and saved all four break points. He then broke Nadal in the sixth game and swept the remaining games to earn his fifth consecutive Wimbledon title, tying Borg's Open era record.[23]
As in 2006, they held the top two rankings for the entire year and won all four Grand Slams. For a record third time in four years Federer won three Slams, including his Open era record fourth straight U.S. Open title. He also won the Masters Cup for the fourth time in five years. Nadal continued his mastery on clay, winning five titles.
The only potential disruption to the status quo was the emergence of Novak Djokovic as a strong World No. 3 in the summer. He earned this ranking by defeating the top three players in sequence at the Canada Masters. But against Federer in the U.S. Open final he squandered seven set points en route to losing in straight sets.
2008
Federer and Nadal played four times in 2008, and Nadal won each time, extending his career advantage to 12-6. He also supplanted Federer as World No. 1 in August, ending Federer's record four-and-a-half year reign.
The first three months of the season were a threat to the top two because of Novak Djokovic's continued success. In January he won his first Grand Slam title at the Australian Open, defeating Federer in the semifinals. This was the first Grand Slam that neither of the top two had won since the 2005 Australian Open. Djokovic then won the Indian Wells Masters and thus closed in on Nadal for the No. 2 ranking. But Nadal held him at bay by reaching the finals of the ensuing tournament in Miami, followed by yet another dominant spring clay-court season. Federer's performance dropped at the beginning of the year, and he later revealed that he had contracted mononucleosis in December 2007. However, he was back in playing shape for the spring season.
For the third straight year Federer and Nadal played in three clay-court finals. Nadal beat Federer in Monte Carlo for the third straight year, capturing his Open era record fourth consecutive title there. He won in straight sets, despite Federer holding a 4-0 lead in the second. A few weeks later Nadal avenged his only clay-court loss to Federer by defeating him in three sets for his first Hamburg title. And for the third straight year they played in the finals of the French Open. This was the most lopsided of all their matches, though, as Nadal only lost four games total and gave Federer his first bagel since 1999. This was Nadal's fourth consecutive French title, tying Björn Borg's all-time record, and he won it without dropping a set.
They also met in the finals of Wimbledon for the third straight year, in the most anticipated match of their rivalry. Nadal entered the final on a 23 match win streak, including his first career grass title at Queen's prior to Wimbledon. Federer was also on a roll, having won his record fifth grass title at Halle without facing a single break point and then reaching the Wimbledon final without losing a set. Unlike their previous two Wimbledon finals, though, Federer was not the prohibitive favorite, and many analysts picked Nadal to win. Amidst rain delays, they played the longest final in Wimbledon history (4 hours and 48 minutes), and Nadal captured the title by winning the fifth set 9-7 in near-darkness. Many long-time tennis analysts promptly concluded that this was the greatest match ever. By winning his first Wimbledon title, Nadal became the first man since Borg in 1980 to win both the French Open and Wimbledon in the same season. He also ended Federer's record streaks of five Wimbledon titles and 65 wins on grass.
Nadal continued to play well after Wimbledon, extending his win streak to a career-best 32 matches. He won his second Canada Masters title then made it to the semifinals of the Cincinnati Masters. However, Federer lost early in both tournaments. This course of events guaranteed Nadal the No. 1 ranking on August 18th, officially ending Federer's record 237 week reign.
Nadal then solidified his No. 1 ranking by winning the gold medal in singles at the Summer Olympics and reaching the semifinals of the U.S. Open for the first time. Meanwhile, Federer lost in the quarterfinals of Olympic singles but won the gold medal in doubles with Stanislas Wawrinka. Federer then captured his fifth straight U.S. Open title, becoming the first man to win two different Grand Slams five consecutive times each. Both Nadal and Federer defeated No. 3 Djokovic in the semifinals of their respective title runs.
For a record fourth consecutive year they finished as the top two ranked players and once again combined to win three Grand Slam titles. Nadal had his best overall year, seizing the No. 1 ranking after a record 160 weeks at No. 2. Federer's overall performance dropped from his previous four year run of dominance, but he still played well enough to narrowly edge Djokovic in the year-end rankings.
2009
Federer and Nadal have played once this year, as of February 8. Nadal won for the fifth straight time, extending his career advantage to 13–6.
They both began the year strong, reaching the finals of Australian Open. This was the first hard court Grand Slam final for Nadal, but Federer has already won 8 hard court titles (5 U.S. Open, 3 Australian) and had the extra incentive of his first opportunity to tie Pete Sampras' all-time Grand Slam title record (14). To compound matters for Nadal, he had survived a grueling 5 hour and 14 minute semifinal two days prior, while Federer had a comparably brief straight sets semifinal victory and an extra day of rest. The final was another grueling match (4 hours and 23 minutes), but Nadal prevailed again, decisively winning the fifth set 6-2. With his sixth career Grand Slam title, he joined Jimmy Connors, Mats Wilander and Andre Agassi as the only men to win Grand Slams on all three surfaces (hard, grass, and clay), but he's the first to do so within a 12-month period.
Analysis
Federer and Nadal during their first
Wimbledon final together
This is the statistical breakdown of their matches:
By surface:
By tournament category:
- Grand Slam Finals: Nadal 5-2
- Grand Slam Matches (all): Nadal 6-2
- All Tennis Masters Series events: Nadal 5-4
- Tennis Masters Cup: Federer 2-0
By tournament round encounter:
- All Finals: Nadal 11-4
- All Non-Finals: Even 2-2
The highest number of matches between the pair have been played on clay, which is Nadal's favoured surface. Indeed, Nadal is so proficient on the surface that as of 5/5/08 he had won 102 of 103 clay court matches and 20 of 21 clay court tournaments entered since early 2005.Federer's sole win on clay broke Nadal's all-time record of 81 consecutive clay court wins. Although prior to the win at the 2007 Hamburg Masters, in which Federer achieved a bagel, he had lost his first five matches against Nadal on clay, the contests were in no way perfunctory affairs. Federer had taken a set off Nadal in each match bar one prior to Hamburg, held match points at the 2006 Rome Masters, and won the first set of the 2006 French Open 6–1. However, Federer seemed to regress in 2008, failing to take advantage of a 4–0 lead in Monte Carlo (second set) and a 5–1 lead in Hamburg (first set),before Nadal inflicted his heaviest victory yet over Federer at the French Open.
Meanwhile, as Federer routinely dominated the ATP Tour's hard court and grass court tournaments from 2004–2007, Nadal did not feature as prominently in the finals of hard court events. The Sportstar section of the The Hindu commented that, irrespective of this, Federer's negative win-loss record against Nadal was, "Not the kind of thing that looks pretty on the resume,"; Jon Wertheim, chief tennis writer of Sports Illustrated, countering this argument, estimated that the players' record against each other would be "closer to 50-50" had Nadal reached more hard court finals, despite Federer having a 3-2 advantage over Nadal on hard court.Given that Federer and Nadal always have the top two seedings when both playing in the same tournament (since July 25, 2005), they are always on opposite sides of the draw and therefore can usually not meet before the final. However, the Tennis Masters Cup has a tournament structure where they will meet in the semifinal if they come first and second in their respective four-man groups, and this happened in both 2006 and 2007.
The limited grass court season (four tournaments, including Wimbledon) makes meetings between the pair less frequent. However, their 3 meetings on grass have come at Wimbledon Championships final. On their initial encounter on grass, Nadal succumbed to Federer in four sets; however, he commented afterwards that grass remained a "difficult surface".Jimmy Connors commented at the time that it dispelled the idea that Nadal was merely a clay-court specialist. Nadal penetrated further in to Federer's game the subsequent year, taking Federer to five sets. However, it was the following year, on July 6, 2008, that Nadal claimed an historic victory over Federer on grass; ceasing Federer's all-time record of 65 consecutive grass court wins. Federer at that time had 40 straight wins at Wimbledon (all other victories came from Federer's winning streak at the Gerry Weber Open in Halle, NRW, Germany), one shy of tying Bjorn Borg's all-time winning streak there of 41 (both Federer and Borg lost in the final of their fifth title defense but Federer was awarded a walkover against Tommy Haas in the 2007 event and so his streak was one match shorter).
Federer and Nadal have never played on a carpet surface; the likelihood of this impeded as a result of there being very few carpet tournaments, and also because both players did not attend the Paris Masters from 2004–2006.
Analysts have commented on how their differing personalities and playing styles have made the rivalry such a compelling one to follow.
Off court, the players enjoy a good-spirited relationship.
List of all matches
ATP, Davis Cup, and Grand Slam main draw results included.
| Legend (2004–2008) | | Grand Slam | | Tennis Masters Cup | | ATP Masters Series | | ATP International Series Gold | | ATP International Series | | Davis Cup | | | Legend (2009–present) | | Grand Slam | | ATP World Tour Finals | | ATP World Tour Masters 1000 | | ATP World Tour 500 Series | | ATP World Tour 250 Series | | Davis Cup | |
| No. | Date | Tournament, Location | Surface | Round | Winner | Score |
| 1. | 2004 | Masters Series Miami, U.S. | Hard | R32 | Nadal | 6–3, 6–3 |
| 2. | 2005 | Masters Series Miami, U.S. | Hard | Final | Federer | 2–6, 6–7(4), 7–6(5), 6–3, 6–1 |
| 3. | 2005 | French Open, Paris, France | Clay | Semifinal | Nadal | 6–3, 4–6, 6–4, 6–3 |
| 4. | 2006 | Dubai, UAE | Hard | Final | Nadal | 2–6, 6–4, 6–4 |
| 5. | 2006 | Masters Series Monte Carlo, Monaco | Clay | Final | Nadal | 6–2, 6–7(2), 6–3, 7–6(5) |
| 6. | 2006 | Masters Series Rome, Italy | Clay | Final | Nadal | 6–7(0), 7–6(5), 6–4, 2–6, 7–6(5) |
| 7. | 2006 | French Open, Paris, France | Clay | Final | Nadal | 1–6, 6–1, 6–4, 7–6(4) |
| 8. | 2006 | Wimbledon, London, England | Grass | Final | Federer | 6–0, 7–6(5), 6–7(2), 6–3 |
| 9. | 2006 | Tennis Masters Cup, Shanghai, China | Hard | Semifinal | Federer | 6–4, 7–5 |
| 10. | 2007 | Masters Series Monte Carlo, Monaco | Clay | Final | Nadal | 6–4, 6–4 |
| 11. | 2007 | Masters Series Hamburg, Germany | Clay | Final | Federer | 2–6, 6–2, 6–0 |
| 12. | 2007 | French Open, Paris, France | Clay | Final | Nadal | 6–3, 4–6, 6–3, 6–4 |
| 13. | 2007 | Wimbledon, London, England | Grass | Final | Federer | 7–6(7), 4–6, 7–6(3), 2–6, 6–2 |
| 14. | 2007 | Tennis Masters Cup, Shanghai, China | Hard | Semifinal | Federer | 6–4, 6–1 |
| 15. | 2008 | Masters Series Monte Carlo, Monaco | Clay | Final | Nadal | 7–5, 7–5 |
| 16. | 2008 | Masters Series Hamburg, Germany | Clay | Final | Nadal | 7–5, 6–7(3), 6–3 |
| 17. | 2008 | French Open, Paris, France | Clay | Final | Nadal | 6–1, 6–3, 6–0 |
| 18. | 2008 | Wimbledon, London, England | Grass | Final | Nadal | 6–4, 6–4, 6–7(5), 6–7(8), 9–7 |
| 19. | 2009 | Australian Open, Melbourne, Australia | Hard | Final | Nadal | 7–5, 3–6, 7–6(3), 3–6, 6–2 |
Exhibitions
On November 21, 2006 they played an exhibition match on a hard court in Seoul, South Korea. Federer won 6–3, 3–6, 6–3.[41]
On May 2, 2007, they played in the "Battle of Surfaces" on a hybrid court that was half clay and half grass. Nadal prevailed 7–5, 4–6, 7–6(10).
Australian Open champion and World No. 1 Rafael Nadal was a frequent customer at a Japanese restaurant in Melbourne during his title run.
ATP World No. 1 Rafael Nadal meets Spanish compatriot Fernando Verdasco in the Australian Open semi-finals on Friday. ATP stats and information guru Greg Sharko previews the match-up. 
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