King Of Clay & World Number One Playing For History

The final everyone expected has arrived in the form of King of Clay, Rafael Nadal, up against world number one, Roger Federer. History is on the line for both players on Sunday, with Nadal aiming for his 3rd Roland Garros title in his third visit to Paris. Federer hopes to claim the only Grand Slam which has eluded him thus far in his career, and victory will slash odds on him completing the calendar year Grand Slam.

Both players negotiated their draws with consummate ease on the way to the final. Nadal’s campaign began with a potentially tricky 1st round encounter with young Argentine Juan Martin del Potro. It was the closest Nadal has come to losing a set in the tournament, trailing 5-3 30-30 in the first set. However, within the blink of an eye, Nadal had recovered to take the first set, 7-5, and pulled away from a despondent del Potro for the remainder of the match. The Spaniard’s early round form was not overly impressive but it did not have to be. The aura carried over from almost three years of clay court dominance is a psychological advantage that many players visibly fail to deal sufficiently with. Nadal defeated Flavio Cipolla and Albert Montanes barely out of first gear.

In Hamburg, Lleyton Hewitt had pushed a jaded Nadal to the limit in a tight loss, and their 4th round encounter at Roland Garros was potentially seen as a testing challenge for the two-time defending champion. It’s at this stage of the tournament that Nadal could be seen to be moving up a level or two in his play and after demolishing Hewitt 6-1, 6-3 in the first couple of sets, survived a 3rd set hiccup to claim the match on the tie-break. The quarter-finals pitted Nadal against good friend and playstation dominator, Carlos Moya. It might have served Moya well to let Nadal win a game or two during their playstation battles, with Nadal as ruthless as ever completing his straight sets win with a 6-0 set.

Nadal’s semi-final opponent came in the form of the increasingly impressive Novak Djokovic. Despite playing well for a majority of the last four clash, Djokovic was still defeated in straight sets. The third set in particular saw some of the best tennis Nadal has produced during this fortnight and served as a warning to Federer for what may be in store for Sunday’s final.

Like Nadal, Federer has eased through his draw, playing as well as he has needed to during each round without ever having to use his full arsenal of skills. The world number one came to Paris with a much needed Masters Series title in Hamburg, defeating Nadal in the final, the first time Federer had succeeded against Nadal on clay. Federer’s quest for the French Open began with hard working American Michael Russell. The rain interrupted match did little to trouble Federer, who didn’t face a break point in the match. At this point the rain was becoming troublesome and playing havoc with the schedule and Federer was forced to play his 2nd round match with Thierry Ascione relatively late in the day. Federer breezed through the first two sets, before completing victory in a third set tie-break having saved set points. It was evident from his post-match comments that he was not impressed with being sent onto court at such a time, accusing the organisers of rushing his match through under the assumption he would be able to complete victory in a relatively short period of time.

Federer’s best early round performance came against Italian Potito Starace, needing just a touch over 90 minutes to complete victory. Mikhail Youzhny provided some resistance in the 4th round, but was ultimately dispatched 7-6, 6-4, 6-4. Federer’s quarter and semi-final opponents were both players inside the world’s top 10, Tommy Robredo and Nikolay Davydenko. Before each match, Federer’s record against Robredo stood at 7-0 (losing only one set in the process), and 8-0 versus Davydenko. With that in mind, it came as no surprise to anyone that Federer would extend his collective record against both opponents to 17-0. Robredo took advantage of Federer in their second set and took the set 6-1. Almost as if insulted, Federer proceeded to wipe the floor with the Spaniard, winning the remaining sets 6-1 6-2. Davydenko had comprehensively outplayed Guillermo Cañas in his quarter-final. Cañas was one of the few players in Federer’s half of the draw who might have been able to hustle and bustle his way to victory and gatecrash the expected Federer-Nadal final.

However, that was not to be the case and Davydenko will look back on his semi-final as major opportunity missed. The Russian, who has recently applied for Austrian citizenship, was a break up in each set and served for both the second and third sets. A distinct lack of self-belief meant Davydenko could not even claim a set in the match despite the openings he had created for himself. It often felt as if Davydenko was as far from winning a set when he served for it, as he was from the beginning of the match.

And so the final that the tennis world had expected has arrived, Nadal leads Federer 5-1 in clay court battles. Two of those victories came at Roland Garros, Nadal halting Federer’s search for the French Open title in last year’s final and in 2005 at the semi-final stage. Federer’s sole victory on clay, as previously mentioned, came this year in Hamburg. Conditions in Hamburg are not remotely the same in Paris, and whereas Hamburg suits Federer, Roland Garros suits Nadal. Federer will have to arguably produce the performance of his career on Sunday if he is to stop Nadal from winning a 3rd successive French Open and thus complete the Grand Slam set for his own collection.

Sports Magician will be reviewing the men's French Open early next week.