Though the Madrid Open suffered early on from top seeds on the women’s side crashing out early, an overhyped matchup between two Serbian Fed Cup teammates and a bit of disorganization that saw a cat run out on court during Dinara Safina’s match, the event finally evened out producing some great tennis on both sides of the men’s and women’s draws.
Today’s champions and how they won their matches not only summed up the event for both, but probably the whole clay court season. Another surprise winner on the women’s side only confirms that no one in the WTA is a sure bet going into Roland Garros while on the men’s side, the only bet you need to make is who you think will face Rafael Nadal in the finals in Paris.
For those who don’t follow the WTA closely, the win today by Frenchwoman Aravane Rezai over favorite Venus Williams 6-2, 7-5 may come as a surprise, but to those who’ve tracked the feisty Rezai, who’s gotten more press for her over the top gold and black dress, her title run today confirmed her status as a dangerous player to meet in any event. After saving five set points against her versus Williams, after it seemed Williams had the second set sewn up leading 5-2, Rezai showed the fight and unwillingness to lose a single point she showed all week with earlier wins over Justine Henin and Jelena Jankovic. How Rezai handles her newfound status, especially going into Paris with all of France watching her, remains to be seen, but don’t be surprised if Rezai takes over from Marion Bartoli as France’s new no. 1 female player.
And then, the match that everyone waited a whole year to see. Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer, perhaps due to nerves and the fact they haven’t played each other in a long time, both started out in less than perfect fashion in the first set. Neither player could convert multiple break point chances handed to them but after they settled down, the match quickly fell on Federer’s shoulders as Nadal’s tried and true grind from the baseline game came into full effect. Federer did try with some success to end points early by coming to net and using the drop shot quite a bit, but it was Federer’s lack of potent approach shots, choosing to hit the ball hard and flat rather than slicing the ball to make Nadal run, that made this strategy a losing one in the end.
After exchanging breaks in the first set, Nadal finally jumped out to a 5-3 lead. Federer held serve and then found himself with two break points again on Nadal’s service game. But Nadal forced things to deuce before winning the set with a running crosscourt pass.
The second set saw early breaks from both men until Nadal broke again with another whiplash forehand to go to 3-2. But Federer raised his game to level it 4-4. Things moved into a tiebreak where it felt like Federer would push the match to a final set. But then Federer backed off on his attacking game plan and soon got tangled up in long baseline rallies he had no hope of winning. Nadal earned two match points but lost the first one when Federer whaled on a forehand. Federer had a chance on his serve to save the next match point, but in an almost ironic yet perfect way, as Federer charged the net Nadal’s return hit the service line causing the ball to jump up. This caused Federer to mistime his forehand, missing it completely, allowing the ball to fall in on the backcourt giving Nadal the match 6-4, 7-6(5).
With the win, Nadal becomes the first man to win three Masters series clay events in a row and bests Andre Agassi’s long held record of most Masters title wins at 18. And now with a head to head record of 14-7 in favor of the Spaniard, Federer now goes into the French Open knowing that his status as “greatest of all time” will still have an asterisk next to it unless he can find a way to defeat Nadal in Paris.
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Federer now goes into the French Open knowing that his status as “greatest of all time” will still have an asterisk next to it unless he can find a way to defeat Nadal in Paris.
That’s a stupid statement. Because to be GOAT doesn’t mean to dominate a single player.
No, you didn’t watch that last point. The ball didn’t touch any line. It was just that Federer’s balls shrunk into a very small size (like Wilander said once) and he was unable to hit a normal ground shot.
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