French Open Final: Another Chapter in the Historic Federer-Nadal Rivalry

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at Internationaled.org

Published: June 4, 2011

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At the 2005 French Open, the world got its first taste of the Federer-Nadal rivalry in Grand Slams. The two met twice previously over the past year at ATP tournaments in Miami and split both matches.

At Roland Garros, however, the rivalry began to tilt in Nadal’s favor. He beat Federer in the semi-finals and went on to win the tournament, his first major, and his first of five French Open victories.

As the years went on, both players added greatness to their legacies. Federer set the record for most consecutive weeks as the world’s number one player, at 237 and continued his dominance on grass and hard courts. From 2004 until 2010, Federer won 14 of the possible 21 Grand Slam titles on those surfaces.

But despite his success on these surfaces, he was block from attaining a Career Slam by Rafael Nadal’s greatness on clay. Finally, just two years ago, Federer won the French to complete his trophy collection. But he did not have to face his greatest rival in the final. Nadal was upset by the big Swede Robin Soderling.

From 2005 until 2008, Nadal won four straight French Opens. But his career was seen as one dimensional. He was not able to win a Slam on a non-clay surface. He wasn’t able to win until the 2008 tournament at Wimbledon, when he beat Federer in five sets in one of the greatest tennis matches ever played.

Since 2008, Nadal has been able to expand his dominance, wresting the title of world number one from Federer in August of 2008 and completing the Career Slam last year with a victory in the US Open Final.

Tomorrow the stage is set for yet another installment of the best rivalry in tennis. Federer comes into the final after ending the 43-match streak of Novak Djokovic. That match included the only set that Federer had lost of the entire tournament. In that match, Federer did something that he had been unable to do in previous years against top-tier talent: use his ba...
Article Source: Bleacher Report - Tennis

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