posted October 7, 2009 at 15:03 EST in Tennis Articles
Nadal and Federer, the Battle to be #1
by Nila Amerova
Rafael Nadal made a winning start to his Beijing campaign when he outlasted wild card Marcos Baghdatis 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 on Tuesday. Admittedly, it was not his best performance. To sum it up: he won a close first set, didn’t play a good second set but he improved in the third set when it counted the most. This slightly short synopsis sums up the match and the broader state of things this season for Rafael Nadal who is coming off his second injury of the season: a tale of trial and tribulation.
Earlier in the summer, he missed two months of play with knee tendinitis and recently, he missed a month nursing an abdominal strain.
Last year, around this time (give or take a few weeks if you need to be accurate) Nadal was the toast of the game. He was a freshly minted No.1, consolidated with eight title victories, including back-to-back Grand Slam victories at the French Open and Wimbledon.
After winning the Canada Masters and reaching back-to-back-to back semis in Cincinnati, the US Open and Madrid Masters, Nadal suffered another bout of knee tendinitis at the Paris Masters, but this time he was forced to give in to his bum knees and retire from his quarterfinal clash against Davydenko, down 1-6 in the first set. His knees were so bad he was forced to skip the rest of the season, including the Tennis Masters Cup in Shanghai.
The 2009 season started in winning fashion for Nadal as he raced to his first-ever hard court Grand Slam title in Melbourne. And ahead of the French Open, he picked up four more titles in Indian Wells, Monte Carlo, Barcelona and Rome. At the French Open, the wheels came undone – or the knees if you like – when Nadal lost to Soderling in the last 16. Immediately afterwards, Nadal had to make a difficult decision, defend his Wimbledon title or heel his knees. He decided on the latter.
The next few months, as miserable as every moment was for him, it was every bit as wonderful for Federer. Nadal experienced his first ATP ranking falloff in four years, dropping to No.2 after Federer reclaimed the Wimbledon title and subsequently the No.1 ranking, and then he slipped further to No.3 when Andy Murray capped a successful week at the Rogers Cup, winning the title.
Going back to the French Open for a moment because that is when the story of the 2009 season picked up a new protagonist, Roger Federer, and up that point, it had been all Rafael Nadal for the most part. In the lead up to the French Open, Nadal dominated the ATP Tour and the headlines but when he fell to Robin Soderling in the last 16 in Paris, the door opened for Federer and he went through. He won the illusive French Open title, his 14 th Grand Slam title to equal Pete Sampras in the record books and immediately afterwards, he picked up his 15 th Grand Slam victory (setting a new record) at the All England Club and reclaimed his No.1 ranking.
How quickly things can change in the space of two months. Federer’s bitter Melbourne tears became joyful Paris tears and ecstatic London tears.
It has been an uphill battle for Rafael Nadal since then but he has shown signs he can still recover and looking ahead to the fall season, improve on his 2008 fall performance. Nadal has already recovered the No.2 ranking, thanks to opening a good account during the summer hard court swing with a quarterfinal appearance at the Rogers Cup and back-to-back semis in Cincinnati and New York, and (to some extent) thanks to Murray wimping out.
If he remains healthy, improving on his fall results is not without his reach. Finishing the season with the year-ending No.1 ranking though might be out of reach (or is it?).
Not if he wins all three of the big titles on offer in the next coming months in Shanghai, Paris and London. And, at the same time, Federer’s fortunes undergo a sudden reversal, which after his withdrawals from both this week’s Beijing tournament and next week’s Shanghai Masters because of back problems might not be as farfetched as you might think. Truth be told, it is still a long shot as Federer holds 11,255 points while Nadal boasts 8,845 points.
After playing for Switzerland in Davis Cup action, Federer made the decision to withdraw from full time play and rest up his back. “I am disappointed that I have to withdraw from Tokyo and Shanghai as they are two of my favourite cities in the world and the fans have been great to me over the years," said Federer on his official website. "After consultation with my team and doctors, I decided to take the difficult decision to withdraw from both tournaments so that I can give my body a chance to rest, rehabilitate and fully recover from a physically challenging year."
Going back to the US Open final post match presser after Federer lost 3-6, 7-6(5), 4-6, 7-6(4), 6-2 to Del Potro, he said, I’ve had a wonderful season in terms of Grand Slams (two titles and two losses in finals). Next to that, I also got back to No. 1 in the world. I hope I can defend that until the end of the year and then hopefully win the (ATP) World Tour Final in London (November 21-29). Along the way I hope I can get some other titles like my home tournament in Basel (November 2-8).”
It is interesting to note that Federer talked about winning Basel when other larger tournaments precede the Swiss tournament in November. Did Federer already know he was going to take and extended break? Might he already been suffering the first signs of his recurring back problem. His supporters may well look upon his US Open final loss to Del Potro differently now in the light of this development – his serve percentage certainly went down in that fifth and deciding set and his ball toss was noticeably off, something ESPN commentator John McEnroe pointed out. A report in Tribune de Genève right after the US Open final explained Federer had a “stiff back” as an explanation for why he had not felt comfortable during the entire match.
Towards the end of last season, the first inkling of any back trouble he might have had emerged when he cited back pain as the reason for withdrawing from his quarterfinal clash against James Blake at the Paris Masters. Early in 2009, Federer referred to his troubled back once again as the underlining reason why he was withdrawing from Dubai. The few months of awful play, highlighted by disastrous losses at Indian Wells and Miami (punctuated by the racquet-smashing incident) now may be chalked to the sore back by his supporters. (If Nadal supporters can blame the knees, Federer fans can have the back I say!).
Federer really only started to play well at the Madrid Masters when after winning no titles in the first five months, he beat Nadal in the final to win his first and then went on to pick up three more titles over the next three months to surpass Nadal in the rankings. And strange as it may now seem, during the first few months of the season Federer had never been more miserable in his professional career and showed it, which was even stranger.
Now, after a full summer schedule that included the aforementioned titles and quarters in Montreal and a runner-up finish at the US Open, it appears his back is at the forefront once again.
So with Rafa back in action (for now at least) and Fed in the meantime resting his sore back somewhere in picturesque Switzerland what will be the new norm in the ATP circuit, if at all. Will Rafa displace Fed as the No.1 come season end? Fed hold on to top spot? Multiple changes – not considered in this piece?
Consider this: in the almost 36-year history of the South African Airways ATP Rankings, only one other player has ever recaptured the year-end No.1 ranking after losing it. That was Ivan Lendl, who owned the year-end No.1 for three consecutive years from 1985-87, finished second behind Mats Wilander in 1988 and reclaimed year-end No.1 in 1989. Federer owned the ranking for four consecutive years before finishing second behind Nadal in 2008. The season is only two months to closing and if Federer can hold on to the No.1 spot, he will become only the second player to accomplish the feat in the Open Era. Nadal barely held the No.1 ranking spot for 12 months before dropping in the ranks. But should he retrieve the year-end honour, he would become the second after Lendl.
Know this: within the broader war for year-end honours, don’t be surprised to see more battles that could result in the No.1 ranking oscillating between Nadal and Federer. They are the best in the game, boasting different styles, personalities and temperaments. And their rivalry is the most engrossing in the world of sports, poised to become the most compelling of great rivalries in the history of world spots.
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