20 for 20: No. 4, Nadal d. Federer, 2009 Australian Open

Last year, for the 50th anniversary of TENNIS Magazine, we focused on the past. Given the tome of stories we’d told, and the trove of players and matches we’d witnessed over the past half-century, it was only natural to look back.

And it was comical to even consider doing something similar this year, for the 20th anniversary of TENNIS.com. So we’re taking the opposite approach, and instead focusing on the future. All throughout the week, we’ll be talking about what’s next for the sport, the website and much more.

It wouldn’t be an anniversary, though, without a countdown. But how do you count down events that haven’t yet happened? By predicting what will come to be.

With that said, we present TENNIS.com’s 20 for 20: Twenty matches that we’ll still be talking about twenty years from now. We’ve restricted this list to matches that have taken place in the last 10 years—or, as 20 for 20 author Steve Tignor has put it, “The Golden Decade.” (If you haven’t read our 50th Anniversary Moments or Tournament of Champions, also written by Steve, I implore you to do so.)

It has been a bountiful time for tennis since TENNIS.com’s inception, and it’s anyone’s guess what the next 20 years will bring. But we believe that each of these matches will sustain the test of time.—Ed McGrogan, Senior Editor

“In these moments, when you see a rival—who is also a comrade—feeling like this, you enjoy the victory a little bit less.”

Those were Nadal’s words after his second straight five-set win over Federer in a Grand Slam final. Seven years later, we all know what he meant when he said that his rival was “feeling like this.” The ’09 Aussie Open men’s final is remembered not so much for what happened over the course of its five sets, but for the tearful, human, ultimately indelible images of the two players afterward.

That’s understandable, but it’s not quite fair to the match itself. While it lacked a little of the quality and drama of their Wimbledon final from the year before, so does just about everything else in tennis history. In some ways, this was a more impressive achievement by the winner. Two days earlier, Nadal had survived a five-set, five-hour semifinal against Fernando Verdasco, and he said he had felt “lightheaded” during his practice sessions leading up to the final. But rather than hurting him against Federer, it spurred Nadal to play a more urgent and proactive version of his baseline game.

That mindset paid off in the match’s crucial moments, and kept Nadal from ever having to play from behind. From 2-4 down in the first set, Rafa fired off a string of winners to reclaim the lead. In the third set, after saving six break points, Nadal took to the attack again in the tiebreaker, breaking to go up 5-3 with a forehand winner. And he extended the lead with what may have been his shot of the match, a lunging backhand drop volley. In the end, Federer couldn’t get over those squandered opportunities.

“Perhaps I should not have been out there in the fifth set at all,” Federer said. “I should have won the first set and the third. The rest of the story, we all know it.”

We do indeed. “God, it’s killing me,” an emotional Federer said during the trophy ceremony before backing away from the microphone. When Nadal walked back and threw his arm over Federer’s shoulder, the Golden Decade had its defining image, and so did Rafa and Roger. They’ve been together in our minds ever since.