There is a man in Switzerland today, a man who is quite upset, quite undone by the events of the last six days. This man has owned the world for seven years now, ever since his birth on a grassy lawn in England, to his coronation six years later, on those same mighty lawns. This man, for seven years now, has been better at his job than nearly everyone else in the world is at theirs, he has been perfect in nearly every way. That man is named Roger Federer, and he is quite upset, because he knows that his time is done. Two years ago, I could have said the same thing, as Federer languished after a 6-1 6-3 6-0 beatdown that he absorbed, but this time seems more definite. Not only did Federer not win the French Open, he was gone three rounds earlier. He was bested by four men, failing to make the semifinals for the first time in 6 years. No, this is final. Federer’s reign, the most bountiful, glorious reign in tennis history, is over. This is the Rafa Dynasty, and get ready, because it will be fun.
Rafael Nadal was not quite upset. In fact, he was sobbing harder than ever before, covering his weeping face in a towel, hiding his own emotions from the public. In tennis, though, the player is never public, and Nadal’s tears were known and understood. His rise to glory had been an odd one. Fifteen months earlier, after finishing off the Holy Trinity of tennis, beating Federer in the French Open Final, Wimbledon Final and Australian Open Final in the span of seven months, he seemed untouchable; however, his knees were conspiring against him, like the senators of Rome against Ceaser. Knee trouble, as well as the divorce of his parents, knocked Nadal off his lofty perch, and allowed Federer to complete the only two things left for him to complete, win the French Open and break Pete Sampras’ all-time Grand Slam record. Done and done. Federer followed this up with winning another Australian Open title, pushing his slam record to 16. Nadal, at that point, dropped to number 5 in the world, and ad sportswriters asking, “Will he ever be the same again?”. No, he’s better.
Rafael Nadal is a different player now. He attacks more, he plays a more complete, offensive game. The old skills like the jack-rabbit quickness, the ridiculous defensive shotmaking and the overpowering will to win are all still there, but they are buoyed by a new sense of self-belief. Rafael Nadal know believes that he can win by simply overpowering his opponent, and quickly massacring them. That is the truly scary part, Nadal is not done getting better. Nadal’s win in the French Open Final against Robin Soderling, the man who took out a weak Nadal last year in the French Open, and also beat Federer in the Quarterfinals five days earlier, was not a vintage Nadal victory, like his 2008 run to the Title that saw him lose just 43 games in seven matches, it was better. Soderling, a man with a newfound self-belief the last two years and the only man to ever know the feeling of beating Rafael Nadal on the clay terrain of the French Open, was powerless. The man who could hit hard enough to beat anyone, including the ‘Greatest of All-Time’ in Federer, could not penetrate Nadal’s mind or body. Soderling could do nothing but idly watch greatness punch and punch until there was nothing left in Soderling. Nadal, like he has done all but one time he has played at the French Open, had won the physical battle and the mental one, but again, he won it differently. Nadal was more offensive, more attacking. He fought Soderling head-on, fighting fire with fire against one of the hardest hitting shotmakers on the ATP Tour, and Nadal won, easily.
Roger Federer is not happy, and mainly because he now sees a different Nadal, one that honestly has no weaknesses, and he seems him hearlthier and better. Of course, this is not news to Federer, who has played Nadal 21 times and lost 14 of them, but what is more troubling was that there are players out there not named Nadal that Federer could lose to, which the opposite is coming true for Rafael. Since his win in the Australian Open, Federer has only made the final in one other tournament, and has lost to the following fringe top-20 players: Marcos Baghdatis, Tomas Berdych, Ernests Gulbis and Albert Montanes, as well as Robin Soderling, a guy he held an 11-0 record against. In the meantime, Nadal has lost to no one, becoming the first man ever to sweep the top-4 Clay Court events in one spring. Nadal used to be the guy getting picked off by the lesser. It was Nadal’s fault that Federer couldn’t have beaten Rafa more than he did, because Rafa was the one that was knocked off early, while Federer calmly waited for the dream matchup that never happened. No, instead, it is now Federer that loses before he gets the chance to play Rafa. Since the Aussie Open, Federer has lost every time before Nadal did at every tournament. Even the one time they did play, in Madrid, it was more of the same, as Federer could not make a big point, and he comically swung and whiffed on match point. Federer had his one shot and failed, and in his heart, he knew The French Open would be no different.
Compounding the fact that Nadal crushed the guy that blasted Federer off the court in the quarterfinals (Soderling), is the even more desultory fact that with that win Rafael Nadal stands atop the ATP standings, again as the number one player in the world. Rafael Nadal had that ranking from August 2008 to July 2009, but lost it when his knee problems forced him out of Wimbledon last year. One year later, Nadal is healthy and changed his game to take pressure off the knees, and Federer may never see number 1 again. The hauntingly amazing fact is that Federer was just one week away from tying Pete Sampras’ record for 286 weeks at No. 1, but may never get that 286th week at this point. It is a Nadal world, and Roger and the rest are living in it.
Roger Federer is never a man to admit defeat. He’s a man that always feel that it is his ability that will carry him through, and that is partly why this is such a troubling time for him. Federer, like many great champions, is very, very stubborn. His beautiful game carried him to 16 grand slam titles, but no longer can. However, he is slow to change, slow to accept the fact that his game currently is just not good enough anymore. He used to believe that when he played Rafa, he was simply better than him, that on talent alone, he could beat him. In many ways, he still does believe that. He has rarely tried to change gameplans, change styles against Nadal. The man has once made Federer cry in defeat at the 2009 Australian Open Final, and also embarrassed Federer giving Roger the worst loss at a Grand Slam the No. 1 player has ever taken, with his 6-1 6-3 6-0 win in the 2008 Final, but through it all Federer truly believes that he is the more talented player. That is why this is a dark day for the maestro in Switzerland, because he is not.
Roger Federer, in all likelihood, will end up with more grand slams than Rafael Nadal. Sure, Nadal, who just turned 24 last week, is already two ahead of Federer’s pace (Federer had 5 slams when he turned 24 in August, 2005), but Federer from ages 24-26 was unlike anything seen in tennis. However, Rafa will always be the man who not only conquered the Fed-eration, but also was the man who completely toyed with Federer at times. Everything Federer did to other players (make them look foolish, pass them on the run with ease, tense them up so they play tentatively), Nadal did to Federer. Even though 12 of their 21 meeting have come on clay (Nadal is 10-2 in those), the other 9 non-clay meetings has Federer barely edging out Rafa 5-4. Also, Nadal has beaten Federer in a Grand Slam Final on clay, grass and hardcourt, while Federer’s only returned the favor on grass. Federer might be the greatest tennis player of the Open-era, but he had one rival who owned him, consistently, because when those two played, Rafa was the better player. This is the first time that Nadal has won a Grand Slam without Federer being an opponent, which is a more harrowing fact. Federer’s won 14 slams without playing Rafa in them. Federer has been able to extend his dominance to everyone, and up until now, Rafael Nadal couldn’t say the same, but now, after crushing the man that handily beat Federer, he can say that, he can make a claim that even with Federer gone, he’s still the best, Rafa Nadal could see his stock soar, and the slams pile up, and that, above anything, is why Federer is crying at home is Basel.
