Despite playing Novak Djokovic seven times since September, No. 3 Roger Federer says that Rafael Nadal is still the person he considers his primary rival. The two will face off in the semifinals of Miami on Friday night, the first time they have played each other on U.S. soil since the 2005 Miami final, which was won by Federer 2-6, 6-7(4), 7-6(5), 6-3, 6-1. Nadal owns a 14-8 head-to-head record against the Swiss, but Federer won their last meeting at the 2010 ATP World Finals and is 5-2 against the Spaniard on hard courts.
"Novak has been playing really well [but] my No. 1 rival to me it seems is Rafa," Federer said. “Doesn't matter how many more times I'm going to be playing all the other guys. At the moment, we have that history and nobody can take it away from us. That's why the only thing really missing from us is a US Open match, I guess, and a few other maybe tournaments. But we've played in so many big finals against each other and were able to play over four or five tough sets and have always shown a lot respect towards each other. So clearly those are the matches I'm really looking forward to and hoping to play my best tennis. If you win, great; if you lose, that's okay, too, as long as you tried everything and learned something else from that match after you lost. But I am planning to win, and that's why I have to be well prepared."
Nadal added: "It's always special to play against him and have these matches, very important matches for both of our careers: finals of Roland Garros, finals of Wimbledon, of Australian Open, a lot of finals in Masters 1000s… that makes the rivalry very, very special. I don't know if rivals in the rest of the history of tennis played as many matches as we’ve played."
Former No.1's Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi played each other 34 times, with Sampras owning a 20-14 edge. - MC