So many things have been said and written about the Federer – Nadal rivalry that it’s arduous to write something that doesn’t taste like microwaved turkey on black Friday. The two tennis icons that have taken this sport to the next level of popularity, transcending the microcosm of yellow fuzzy balls hitters to become mainstream characters and global brands. They have been the top two players of the ranking for longer than anyone else, and their matches were often a fight for dominance in the tennis kingdom. They have played at every latitude on every surface, sometimes even on two surfaces at the same time (in an infamous exhibition in Majorca, Spain, where the court was half clay and half grass).
That is mainly before injuries hit both of them: first Rafa, who had to endure long stops in 2009, 2012 and 2016, due to problems at his knees and his wrist, then Roger, who played throughout 2013 with a bad back and eventually decided to end the 2016 after Wimbledon due to an injured knee. Now both champions have nursed their wounds and got themselves back into shape to fight another day, another event, another season. Are they back to their former selves who once dominated in their respective territories (clay, grit and relentless for Nadal; fast courts, serve and attack for Federer)? Of course not.
As often repeated by Jon Wertheim, tennis head writer for Sports Illustrated, Father Time is undefeated, and not even the Greatness of these two has been able to stop the clock. But they seem to have slowed it down. They have both played two 5-set matches on their way to the final and they both have defeated at least two Top 10 players (Three for Federer, but Nadal had also n.24 Alexander Zverev who won’t probably stay out of the Top 10 for very long). Rafa has been on court five hours longer than Roger, but it’s not a surprise that it takes him forever to do everything on court. The almost five hours needed by the Spaniard to overcome Dimitrov in Friday night’s semifinal could be a factor in Sunday’s match, but so could be Federer’s age (he’s five year’s older than his rival) and his upper leg problem that forced him to take a very rare medical timeout during his last match against Wawrinka.
Nadal’s forehand has been attacked, with varying degrees of success, by all his opponents at this Australian Open, and its reliability has not been impeccable. That forehand is supposed to deliver lethal top-spins on Federer’s backhand, which has been as solid as it’s been in years throughout the past two weeks, and we don’t know how the most debated shot matchup in recent tennis history will result in this new reality. The Swiss’ serve has kept him afloat on several occasions, but that 6-1 conceded to Wawrinka could be a worrisome signal. On the other hand, Federer displayed an impressive and very unusual 80% break point conversion stat (4 out of 5) in his “coming out party” against Berdych in the third round, before returning to a more befitting 13/36 (36%) in his three subsequent matches. The two have met 34 times before, with Federer only winning on 11 occasion, of which only two in Grand Slam Finals (both times at Wimbledon) against Rafa’s six.
For every valid argument, there is an equally valid counter-argument as to why each of the two can be in a better position in this “Fedal XXXV” as some people are calling it echoing the upcoming SuperBowl. Maybe it’s better to just enjoy it, as every fan, every club player, every coach, every journalist and we are quite sure every ticket scalper in Melbourne will do, since it may be one of the last “re-runs” of this all-time classic: the actors are not in their prime any longer, but they will take pride in showing the wrinkles that made them who they are. As Italian Academy-Award winning actress Anna Magnani once said to a make up artist: “Please don’t retouch my wrinkles, it took me so long to earn them”.
