Sometimes the great players rise to the occasion, as they say; sometimes the occasions maintain the upper hand. Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal staged a classic last month at the Italian Open, a tune-up for Roland Garros. Today, for the second straight year at Roland Garros itself, they seemed weighed down by the occasion, their brilliance only intermittent. Still, you have to hand it to Nadal: Just when you think it’s his turn to fail in the big moment, he doesn't.
The Spaniard was subdued at the start, foregoing most of his usual pre-match fidgeting and posturing. Remember what I said about the particular pressure of a Grand slam final? It’s enough to make even the highest spirits a little gunshy. Worse, it carried over into his play—Nadal started flatter (more flatly?) than I’ve ever seen him. He was broken in the second game on a weak, tentative forehand into the net and went on to shank away the set; his backhand in particular was awful. Federer did a good job of keeping him down by moving around his own backhand and hitting penetrating inside-out forehands.
Besides the startling result, three things struck me about the first set. (1) I think Nadal was flat in part because of his deference to Federer. No matter how many times Nadal has beaten him, Federer, older by five years, remains in his eyes a kind of idol. Nadal, who said he was “very nervous,” seemed to feel the weight of the moment as he looked across the net and saw his opponent. His trademark exuberance was damped down completely—how many times has Nadal gone through a first set with zero fist-pumps? (The first came at 1-0 and deuce in the second set.) (2) There were two new elements to Federer’s strategy: To work in the swinging volley when he had the upper hand in the point, and, rather than use his usual short crosscourt slice backhand, which the lefty Nadal typically drills, shift it down the line. Neither tactic did much damage. (3) While there’s no way it was a trap by Nadal, losing the first set 6-1 quickly took the pressure off him and put it on Federer—Laver and the Grand Slam were suddenly on the horizon, approaching fast; that would be enough to make anyone blink.
The match turned early in the second set. Nadal broke Federer from 40-0 down (one of his specialties) for 2-0, and from this point the errors began to flow from Federer’s backhand. He looked stymied on that side, caught flat-footed and swinging with all arm. At the end of the set, he put one backhand return into the dirt on his side of the net.
How could the world No. 1 look so bad on that side? Federer has said in the past that Nadal’s shots are harder to read than they appear, and there does seem to be something in Rafa’s lefty topspin that makes Federer hesitate. Also, I think you can go back to the tactics that Federer and Tony Roche talked about before the match, their elusive combination of aggression and patience. The result was a confused approach to the backhand. You could imagine Federer asking himself, Do I come over it, attack it, float it back? The same was true on the forehand. Federer was caught a number of times in no-man’s land and subsequently sprayed a forehand long.
Robert Landorp once told me that the only way Pete Sampras would win the French Open was by playing exactly the way he did on hard courts. Federer may be better served by the same tactic: Lose the "patience," stick with the "aggression." After all, Federer played his best tennis here in the second set against Nalbandian basically by saying "me hit winners now."
Nadal was in top form for the third set and much of the fourth. He came back from 0-40 in the fourth game to hold with some big forehands and serves. He broke serve and then held after being down 0-30. It’s those mini-comebacks by Nadal that must demoralize an opponent. By the end of the set, Nadal was flattening out his backhand, scrambling well, and hitting nasty forehand crosscourts that had Federer’s wheels spinning. To hold for 5-3, Nadal hit a huge crosscourt forehand winner and followed it up with an even bigger one down the line.
By 4-2 in the fourth, it looked like Federer was ready to call it—one floating backhand followed another. I caught a glimpse of Tony Roche flicking his wrist in a backhand motion and shaking his head at one stage. Down 4-5, Federer shanked two backhands that nearly landed in the stands. While he climbed back with a spectacular scrambling point at 30-30, Nadal maintained his composure—no Vaidisova meltdowns for him—and ended it with the shot that Federer had come out hitting in the first set, a sharp-angled swinging forehand volley.
Afterward, Federer said “it was a pity.” He was unwilling to sound crushed after being turned away at history’s gate. Nadal was emotional, saying that his struggles with injury at the beginning of 2006 made this moment more special. Whatever you think of his on-court antics, you have to love Nadal’s passion for the game and for winning. It’s unmatched in tennis today.
Federer and Nadal were bound at the hip for the last two months; now they’ll go their separate ways. It’s almost as if Nadal is being banished to the minor leagues for a while. Even he laughed today when he speculated about getting to the second week of Wimbledon. The consolation for him is that the pressure is off—he’s done what he was supposed to do (and made perhaps more money than any athlete in the world since the start of April). Meanwhile, Federer presumably goes on to further glory, and the expectations that go with it. The key to their rivalry continuing and growing will be the summer hard-court season in America, and particularly Nadal mounting a challenge at Flushing Meadows. Wouldn’t it be nice to see them play a big match on something other than clay this year? There’s no reason it can’t happen. Nadal is the defending champion at the Canadian Open, Federer is the titleholder in Cincinnati. You have to think they’ll meet somewhere in North America.
For the record
Federer’s record number of undefeated wins in Slam finals is over at eight; Nadal’s 60-match clay-court streak goes dark for a little while.
Nice moment
(I mentioned this after the Rome match as well) Nadal and Fed doing a brief arm touch after their pre-match photo. Nadal’s was quick, Federer’s slow and casual. Too bad they were both wearing blue. Can’t they coordinate these things with Nike?
Also, as the tournament progressed, the sniping between the two went quiet. That was only appropriate for such a big event—the talk was over, the moment of truth was here.
Best sightings in the stands
We’d seen Nadal's mother and father, but today we also got his other uncle, Angel Miguel, the Beast of Barcelona and former Spanish World Cupper. He’s got Rafa’s arms. Three questions: Was that Jennifer Aniston up there? Was that Nadal’s sister right behind his mom? And was Nadal’s dad sitting next to a rabid Federer fan?
These are the crucial things you miss when you have to sit in the press box at Roland Garros and don’t get to watch it on NBC!
Wrap note: I fly to NY tomorrow, but will try to have a final post up either Monday or Tuesday.