After disappointing his fans for a majority of the clay court season, world number one Roger Federer has shown to the audiences his bad days will come to an end. After defeating Earnests Gulbis in the quarter final (the same Latvian he lost against in Rome) and the ‘in-form’ David Federer in the semi-final, he has progressed to his first final on clay this season. In his run, the Swiss maestro forgot that he was up against the king of clay, Rafael Nadal.
The match was important for the tennis fraternity as they were witnessing an occasion such as this for the first time this year - a match between Roger Federer against arch rival Rafael Nadal. Everyone was wishing for these two champions to reach the final once Novak Djokovic pulled out of this tournament. Nadal was in sublime form throughout the clay court season and he showed it in this tournament as well. No one could pose any threat to the king of clay who played, who won and who made history in Madrid.
Nadal’s win over Roger Federer earn’t him a plethora of distinctions. He’s become the proud winner of all three clay court Master 1000 events in the same year. Nadal has also overtaken Andre Agassi’s record of 17 ATP 1000 Master Cup Shields. Prior to the match, Nadal was tied on the number one spot with Andre Agassi as far as this record was concerned. Federer sits on number three position with 16 titles to his name. This is one record that has eluded the Swiss for many years. Usually, Federer favours the best of five sets played in the grand slams more than the quick three setters of the ATP 1000 events.
Nadal came in as the favourite in this match although the Swiss ranked higher than him. This was probably because of current form that the Spaniard was experiencing. His body is fitter than perhaps when he first arrived on the circuit. The new strings that he used in his racket gave him more spin, making sure that most of his balls land inside the court. Nadal’s angles improved as well as far as his shots were concerned. Nadal was always miser when it came to the unforced error tally, but the new found spin has further decreased the lefty’s mistakes. With the consistency of Nadal, everyone knew that he wouldn’t give the match to Federer. If the Swiss champion had to win, he had to play out of his skin.
Federer on the other hand, has been inconsistent. The champion had been in a very poor form coming in this tournament. Although he managed to reach the final but there were two tight matches in between where he made way too many errors compared to his high standards. However, after his loss to Nadal in the final, critics can only analyse the quality tennis that he played in the rest of the tournament. There were many moments of brilliance on his way to the final as you would expect from the Fed express. But he needed more than that to beat the Spaniard on his home clay. Federer relied heavily on his serve throughout the tournament and that was a major factor for his defeat in the final. Importantly, both Federal and Nadal are on equal terms now. Federer has found good form before the French open and that is an exciting proposition for his fans too.
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